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7-13-2016
Examining the Influence of Modified Tennis
Equipment on Young Players’ Enjoyment,
Perceived Competence, and Intention to
Participate in Tennis in the State of Kuwait
Abdullah Akbar
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Intention to Participate in Tennis in the State of Kuwait" (2016). Dissertations. 360.
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© 2016
ABDULLAH AKBAR
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO
Greeley, Colorado
The Graduate School
EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF MODIFIED TENNIS
EQUIPMENT ON YOUNG PLAYERS’ ENJOYMENT,
PERCEIVED COMPETENCE, AND INTENTION
TO PARTICIPATE IN TENNIS IN
THE STATE OF KUWAIT
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of
Sport and Exercise Science
Abdullah Akbar
College of Natural and Health Science
School of Sport and Exercise Science
Exercise Science
July 2016
This Dissertation by: Abdullah Akbar
Entitled: Examining the Influence of Modified Tennis Equipment on Young Players’
Enjoyment, Perceived Competence, and Intention to Participate in Tennis in the State of
Kuwait
has been approved as meeting the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Sport and
exercise Science in College of Natural and Health Sciences in Department of Sport and
Exercise Science
Accepted by the Doctoral Committee
Robert Brustad, Ph.D., Research Advisor
Megan Stellino, Ed.D., Committee Member
Dianna Gray, Ph.D., Committee Member
Angie Henderson, Ph.D., Faculty Representative
Date of Dissertation Defense
Accepted by the Graduate School
Linda L. Black, Ed.D.
Associate Provost and Dean of
The Graduate School & International Admissions
ABSTRACT
Abdullah Akbar. Examining the Influence of Modified Tennis Equipment on Young
Players’ Enjoyment, Perceived Competence, and Intention to Participate in
Tennis in the State of Kuwait
Children’s sport needs to be designed in ways that is developmentally-appropriate
to maximize the possibilities that participants will have positive experiences that will
result in sustained interest and motivation. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was
to compare the impact of playing with modified or traditional tennis equipment on
children’s perceptions of enjoyment, perceived competence, and intentions to continue
participation in the sport of tennis in the State of Kuwait. Focus group interviews were
used to understand children’s perceptions of their tennis experiences through the
utilization of the modified and traditional tennis equipment. The quality of children’s
skill acquisition was also examined.
Quantitative analyses were computed through repeated measures analysis of
variance (RM ANOVA) to determine changes in children’s enjoyment, perceived
competence, and intention to continue to participate in tennis from pretest to posttest.
The findings indicated that children in the modified tennis equipment group improved
significantly more in their tennis enjoyment, perceived competence, and intention to
continue to play tennis than did the children in the traditional tennis equipment group.
Differences in children’s skill acquisition was examined through the Mann-Whitney U
iii
and revealed significant improvements in forehand and backhand performance for the
children in the modified tennis equipment group from pre-test to post-test.
Qualitative findings were consistent with the quantitative results. Children in the
modified tennis equipment group reported high levels of enjoyment, perceived
competence, and intention to continue to play tennis in the future. Conversely, children
in the traditional tennis equipment group expressed less interest in tennis and had lower
enjoyment, perceived competence, and intention to continue to play tennis in the future.
The findings from this study provide empirical evidence that developmentally
appropriate sports equipment can be beneficial for youth and can contribute to positive
outcomes in terms of more favorable competence perceptions and increased motivation to
play sport. In addition, the use of modified tennis equipment was found to be beneficial
in contributing to actual skill performance. Further exploration of the potential benefits
of developmentally appropriate equipment is needed.
iv
DEDICATION
It is immensely difficult to find the right words to express our appreciation for the
people who dedicated their time, effort, and emotions to help us accomplish our dreams.
To do this requires the existence of exceptional people who assist not only in achieving
dreams, but also in celebrating them. Cherished moments exist in having wonderful
people who are willing to share their true feelings of happiness for our own success.
Thank you to my precious mother and father for dedicating your lives to invest in
mine. Thank you to my family for living my dream with me, including both the difficult
and happy moments. Between this dissertation’s tremendous words and ink there dwell
feelings of appreciation for all people who believed in my humble ability.
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Learning does not occur accidentally. We learn to seek knowledge to improve
our lives. Knowledge needs to be provided from experts and experienced people who are
willing to share their precious time and effort to see other people succeed. This work
would not be accomplished without amazing people like my committee members. Each
esteemed member shared with me priceless knowledge and valuable expertise that I will
appreciate all my life.
Thank you to my advisor, Dr. Robert Brustad, for believing in me. You are an
amazing and wise person who always encouraged me to do my best. I cannot forget my
other committee members who I appreciate for their astonishing support and kindness.
This work would not be possible without all of you, and the credit is all yours. Thank
you.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION ……………………...…………………………..………
1
Purpose of this Study
Research Questions
Significance of this Study
Need for this Study
Limitations of this Study
Summary
II. LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………...………….…..
19
The Benefits of Sport Participation
Positive Youth Development
Motivational Theories of Youth Sport Participation
Competence Motivation Theory
Self-Determination Theory
Developmentally Appropriate Sport Modifications
III. METHODOLOGY ……………..……………..…………………………….
52
Participants
Research Design
Intervention
Instruments and Protocols
IRB Approval
Data Analysis
IV. RESULTS ……………………………………...…………………………...
Demographic Description
Descriptive Statistics
Research Question 1
Research Question 2
Research Question 3
Research Question 4
vii
67
V. DISCUSSION ………………………………………...…………………….
98
Findings Related to Research Questions
Summary and Future Directions
REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………...
109
APPENDIX A: Situational Questionnaire………………………………………..
137
APPENDIX B: Focus Group Interview Guidelines ………………………….….
139
APPENDIX C: Tennis Australia’s Fundamental Technique Checklist …...…….
142
APPENDIX D: Teachers Interview Guidelines..……………………………....…
.
APPENDIX E: IRB Consent Form—Parents ..………………………………..…
144
APPENDIX F: IRB Consent Form—Coaches ………………………..………….
150
APPENDIX G: Translated Questionnaire and Interviews Questions…………….
153
APPENDIX H: Research Involving Human Participants for University of
Northern Colorado Institutional Review Board Approval Letter ……………..…
157
viii
147
LIST OF TABLES
Number
1
2
3
Means and Standard Deviations for Enjoyment for the Modified
and Traditional Tennis Equipment Groups ………………………….
72
Means and Standard Deviations for Perceived Competence for the
Modified and Traditional Tennis Equipment Groups ………….…….
80
Means and Standard Deviations for Intention to Continue to Play
Tennis for the Modified and Traditional Tennis Equipment
Groups ………………………………………………………………..
90
ix
LIST OF FIGURES
Number
1
USTA Description of the Quickstart’s Three Stages ………………….
54
2
The Situational Questionnaire Procedure ………..………....………….
68
3
Physical Education Teachers Interview Procedure ……………………
69
4
Type of Observational Data…………………….……………..………..
69
5
Means for Groups on Tennis Enjoyment….……………………..……..
71
6
Group Means for Perceived Competence …...…………………………
80
7
Group Means for Intention to Continue to Play Tennis ...…....………..
89
x
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Athletic participation is linked to benefits in psychological, physical, and social
well-being (Fraser-Thomas & Côté, 2006). There is an extensive range of psychological
benefits, including greater self-esteem, increased overall self-worth, more positive selfimage, lower levels of stress and anxiety, and a lower incidence of psychopathology for
young people who participate in sport (Hills, King, & Armstrong, 2007). Sport
involvement also improves concentration, attention, memory skills, and academic
achievement (National Federation of State High Schools, 2003). The benefits can also
include enhanced social skills and decision-making skills (McCallister, Blinde, & Weiss,
2000). In order for children to benefit from athletic participation, they must be
encouraged to continue to participate in positive youth programs (Fraser-Thomas, Côté &
Deakin, 2005). According to Weiss and Williams (2004), numerous factors can affect a
child’s participation in athletics, including the social environment around the athlete,
including the involvement of their peers and significant adults.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) assembled in 2002 a team of tennis
experts to determine the best way to promote tennis for beginning players for the purpose
of encouraging lifelong participation. Research conducted in multiple nations found an
increasing number of tennis players in various countries had difficulty maintaining
involvement in the sport. Subsequently, they determined that the retention of new tennis
2
players requires effort and rigorous training for young players to reach advanced levels of
play. Therefore, the team acknowledged the need for changes in tennis equipment and
rules and has recommended adaptations to make the game more enjoyable, particularly
for young people. These adaptations, called Play and Stay, were specifically designed for
players 10 years of age and younger (Miley, 2007). Starting in 2012, the face of tennis
for children (10 years and younger) was officially changed through these modifications.
New modified tennis equipment such as low-compression balls, lighter and shorter
racquets, smaller-size courts, lower net height, and modified game rules replaced the
older and more traditional tennis equipment around the globe (International Tennis
Federation, 2013). The effort made to encourage the utilization of scaled tennis
equipment in all competitions for players 12 years and under was proposed by the ITF in
2012, and all affiliated local tennis federations, including the United States Tennis
Association (USTA), joined this effort.
Each of the changes in equipment was rooted in the belief that scaling both courts
and equipment would positively impact the learning experience, motivation, and
participation of youth (Timmerman et al., 2015). In other words, use of this
developmentally appropriate equipment was expected to increase participation among the
age group of 5- to 10-year-old children, speed up the development of both technical and
tactical tennis skills (Anderson, 2007), and retain children in the sport over the age of 10
more effectively (Timmerman et al., 2015).
Recently, the State of Industry Report (Tennis Industry Association, 2015)
revealed the tennis industry was worth 5.5 billion dollars in the United States. Tennis
was the fastest growing traditional sport in the United States, with an overall participation
3
of 17.7 million players frequently participating. The report also indicated that 15 million
individuals were interested in playing tennis across all age groups. In 2013 alone,
658,000 new participants from different age groups were added to the tennis community.
The number of youth tennis players aged 6 to 12 years grew 5% to reach an overall level
of 2 million in 2013. The growth in the number of youth tennis players has also been
accompanied by a parallel growth in the shipments of modified tennis equipment (e.g.,
tennis balls) as was evident with a 375% increase between 2008 and 2013. Interestingly,
the scaling tennis equipment such as low-compression balls was the only tennis
equipment area to grow from the previous year, from 4.2% in 2014. This was in
comparison to traditional youth tennis equipment which decreased for the same year by 3.1% (Tennis Industry Association, 2015). These numbers reflect the fast growth of
tennis in the United States and the potential benefits that tennis could offer people from
different ages, especially young individuals. However, according to the State of Industry
Report (Tennis Industry Associationb, 2010), the tennis growth was not stable, and a
reduction in total participation of 7% in 2010 was noticed.
Many countries throughout the world, including the United States and Kuwait,
have policies in place to promote and support sport and physical activity. These policies
and programs are focused on increasing participation levels, especially in organized and
competitive athletics. Children are most likely to leave an athletic activity if they do not
find success, develop skills, enjoy what they are doing, or meet friends in the activity
(Crane & Temple, 2015). The overall well-being of the child should be the primary goal
of the sport programs in which they participate. As sports become more and more
4
competitive, children need support in effectively coping with injuries and dealing with
negative feedback (McCarthy & Jones, 2007).
Kirk (2005) stated that “quality early learning experiences not only develop
physical competencies, but crucially, also perceptions of competence that underlie the
motivation that is vital to continuing participation” (p. 251). At this time in their
development, youth are in a position to benefit from positive physical, social, and
psychological developmental outcomes resulting from athletic participation (Kirk, 2005).
This is also an important age range because withdrawal rates increase after the age of 14,
demonstrating that not all children experience the desired outcomes (Guèvremont,
Findlay, & Kohen, 2008).
According to Cook and Hess (2007), “To learn about a child’s perspective, adult
researchers have to get beyond their own beliefs about a situation and listen to children in
different ways” (p. 31). Recently, more attention has been devoted to the experiences of
children when conducting research, as opposed to using adult experiences and
perceptions to guide assumptions about what children experience and perceive (Cook &
Hess, 2007). Adult emphasis on winning can lead to an overly competitive environment
(Scanlan, Babkes, & Scanlan, 2005). Eliminating the role of adults when designing
children’s sport experiences does not necessarily lead to positive outcomes, while
intensive involvement by adults might not necessarily lead to efficient development and
positive youth sport experience (Lauer, Gould, Roman, & Pierce, 2010). Instead,
significant adults such as coaches and parents should be encouraged to play important
roles in supporting youth’s need to positively influence their sport experience. This can
be done by balancing what coaches and parents would like the youth to learn with the
5
youth’s actual physical, psychological, and social readiness to learn. For this reason,
adults should advocate for constructing positive youth development experiences that
focus on promoting the development of children and youth psychologically, physically,
and socially.
There has been some concern expressed that early sport participation, or
specialization, could actually lead to a higher risk for physical, psychological, and
developmental complications (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000; Strachan, Côté, &
Deakin, 2009) including burnout (Coakley, 2009; Gould, 2010; Strachan et al., 2009),
overuse injuries (Kaleth & Mikesky, 2010), social isolation (Callender, 2010; Coakley,
2010; Gould, 2010), and dropout (Butcher, Lindner, & Johns, 2002; Strachan et al., 2009;
Wall & Côté, 2007). Gould, Tuffey, Udry, and Loehr (1996) found that specialization at
a younger age and highly structured training decreased the intrinsic motivation of
participants and increased their burnout and withdrawal. Similarly, Wall and Côté (2007)
found that hockey players who had withdrawn from their sport had started their off-ice
training earlier than their counterparts who still participated. This evidence seems to
suggest that lower levels of enjoyment negatively impact the development of skills
(Russell & Symonds, 2015).
In order to create the best conditions for development, it is important to
understand the process of motor development and the physical and psychological effects
on learning to create situations where youth can develop competence with increasingly
difficult tasks (Coker, 2013). Minor modifications in regard to sport (tennis) rules,
equipment size or weight, and the structure of the practice might lead to meaningful
changes in patterns of children’s movement (Liu, Mayer-Kress, & Newell, 2006). It has
6
been observed for some time that changes in movement behavior can occur (i.e., a switch
in behavioral patterns) when key constraints in the performance context are manipulated
(Kelso, 1995). Renshaw, Chow, Davids, and Hammond (2010) stated that “nonlinear
development is predicated on the constant interactions of individuals and the environment
where the learner is placed at the center of the process as movements and decisions are
made based on unique interacting individual, task, and environmental constraints” (p.
120). Newell (1986) defined constraints as the structures that influence individual
behaviors when learners are striving to stabilize their movement patterns to accomplish a
precise task. According to the constraints-led approach, three general categories of
constraints include personal constraints (e.g., player’s experiences), environmental
constraints (e.g., tennis court surfaces), and task constraints (e.g., modified equipment).
Applying these categories of constraints allows for an understanding of coordination
when acting with purpose and understanding that constraints continuously interact
(Araújo, Davids, & Hristovski, 2006). The appropriate and positive interaction between
the three constraints might enhance children’s self-adjusted and goal-directed behaviors
(Newell, 1986).
Modifying sports through task constraints might be considered a beneficial
strategy to enhance children’s movement behaviors during the learning process in
supporting them to successfully learn the desired sport skill (Chow et al., 2009).
Modifications and adaptations can be made so that the task is set at an appropriate level
in accordance with the skill of the athlete (Davids, Button, & Bennett, 2008). A helpful
paradigm for analyzing the effectiveness of scaling tasks or equipment can be found in a
constraints-led framework (Davids et al., 2008). Hence, task, personal, and environment
7
constraints are three varied, but interrelated, constraints proposed by Newell’s (1986)
model of learning that will affect the outcome of skill production (Clemente, Rocha, &
Korgaokar, 2012).
Utilizing modified tennis equipment is a useful approach to enhance children’s
skill acquisition and movement patterns. In this regard, Davids et al. (2008) explained
that “modified equipment can restructure the practice environment and enable learners to
cope with less stringent task constraints” (p. 161). Coaches can increase skill attainment
by using scaled equipment to restrict an athlete’s movement pattern (Davids et al., 2008).
Research suggests that scaled sports equipment would positively impact youth skill
acquisition (Alderman, Beighle & Pangrazi, 2006). Further, studies have assessed
applicable strategies showing how these practice restrictions allow for the development
of more skilled movement in young people (Coker, 2013). The athlete’s size and body
type must be considered when determining the appropriate size and weight of equipment
to be used (Araújo, Davids, Bennett, Button, & Chapman, 2004). Motor development
theorists have a sustained interest in how the size of equipment and playing areas affect
the youth athlete’s attainment of skills (Haywood & Getchell, 2001). A useful approach
to retain young athletes can be to disseminate the sport into age- and developmentally
appropriate games that maintain the general integrity of the overall game (Coker, 2013).
Scaled equipment and courts can give young tennis players the opportunity to find small
successes as they progress in their skills, leading to longer rallies and increased fun
(Goldfine, 2013).
Enjoyment and pleasure associated with sports are major reasons why children
choose to participate in a specific sport such as tennis (Weiss & Ferrer-Caja, 2002), and
8
sport enjoyment is considered the most powerful factor for determining sport
participation and persistence (Weiss & Weiss, 2007). In fact, sport enjoyment has been
found to have a significant relationship with other factors such as perceptions of
competence, which have a direct relationship with children’s participation behaviors
(Cairney et al., 2012). Therefore, creating a sport environment that fosters individual’s
intrinsic motivation by enhancing the enjoyment attached to the tasks and activities
should have a positive impact on children’s participant behaviors (Crocker, Hoar,
McDonough, Kowalski, & Niefer, 2004).
According to the ITF, beginning amateur tennis players should first use slower,
lower-compression balls on a reduced-size court (International Tennis Federation, 2007).
Similar to equipment modification approaches used in other sports, beginning tennis
players can benefit from modifications and accommodations to increase enjoyment as
skills are developed, making scaling children’s equipment widespread (Australian Sports
Commission, 2015), despite the fact that there is not currently a strong base of data to
indicate the precise nature of this scaling. Frequently, programs assert positive outcomes
such as utilizing modified tennis equipment without empirical evidence to support this
assertion (Kachel, Buszard, & Reid, 2015). Therefore, understanding and examining the
influence of modified tennis equipment on children’s enjoyment, perceptions of
competence, and intentions to continue participation in tennis is crucial to provide
empirical evidence on the affordance of the equipment to retain children in the sport of
tennis.
9
Purpose of this Study
The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to compare the impact of playing
with modified or traditional tennis equipment on children’s perceptions of enjoyment,
perceived competence, and intention to continue participation in the sport of tennis in the
State of Kuwait. In addition, this study sought to understand in depth, via focus group
interviews, children’s perceptions regarding their tennis experience through the
utilization of the modified tennis equipment. Evaluation of the quality of children’s skill
acquisition via analyzing their performance through utilization of Dartfish software was
also conducted in this study. Students’ performance (i.e., forehand and backhand strokes)
was assessed to examine the differences between students’ performance at the beginning
and at the end of intervention.
Research Questions
Q1
Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their level of enjoyment from players who use traditional
tennis equipment?
Q2
Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their perceived competence relative to players who use
traditional tennis equipment?
Q3
Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their intention to continue to participate relative to players
who use traditional tennis equipment?
Q4
Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their ability to execute forehand and backhand
groundstrokes relative to players who use traditional tennis equipment?
Significance of this Study
Throughout the United States and the rest of the world, an effort is being made to
increase player participation and retention in tennis through the creation of environments
10
conducive to developing young players into top athletes. At its core, this movement
focuses on the type of environment required for adolescent and adult athletes to hone
their skills to both increase their enjoyment of the sport and succeed at the highest levels
of competition (Goldfine, 2013). Modern organizations have focused efforts on retaining
youth participation through the adaptation of the rules, equipment, and courts to better
meet the needs of younger athletes (Timmerman et al., 2015). The proposed benefits of
these changes are increased skill development and enhancement of fun and motivation
which should lead to higher levels of continuous involvement (Farrow & Reid, 2010).
With respect to tennis, these adaptations result in a reduced speed of play, allowing for
children to participate and learn the necessary skills to be competent players (Farrow &
Reid, 2010; International Tennis Federation, 2015). Research done in the past has found
that the speed of the game is affected by the type and size of the ball used (Cooke &
Davey, 2004). Through research with adult participants, it was found that player reaction
time is increased when the speed of the ball is decreased, allowing for the player to make
proper adjustments (Andrew, Chow, Knudson, & Tillman, 2003). This thinking lends
itself to the belief that young tennis players may benefit from playing with balls of
different characteristics including lighter, lower-compressed tennis balls. The
development of their strokes may be negatively affected by balls that bounce above their
usual groundstroke impact zone or move too quickly (Barrell, 2008). Adjusting the size
of both tennis balls and courts may benefit young players by providing them with less
rebound height. Despite this possible benefit, there is very little research on the
advantages of low-compression balls on the participation of young players (Larson &
Guggenheimer, 2013).
11
Importantly, it is clear that the ITF and the USTA succeeded in their mission and
enhanced tennis participation in the last few years. It is obvious that the tennis
community has accepted the logic underlying the use of modified tennis equipment.
Nevertheless, we should generate empirical research to determine whether equipment
modifications are beneficial to motivation, enjoyment and skill execution of young and
beginning players. To date, tennis organizations have been very supportive of the use of
equipment scaling, despite the lack of research on the actual connection between scaling
and performance (Timmerman et al., 2015). The use of scaling is expected to give young
players a sense of success, enjoyment, and continuous motivation to participate, which
would seemingly provide a solution to the declining numbers of participants in the sport
of tennis.
Some recent research has examined the effectiveness of modified equipment. The
initial purpose of the ITF and USTA scaling tennis equipment was to create opportunities
for young players to hold longer rallies. One study conducted by Kachel et al. (2015)
found that the modified ball did not result in longer rallies or shots taken; nevertheless,
modified equipment did assist young tennis players to strike ground strokes at a more
comfortable height and helped players to increase rally speed (Farrow & Reid, 2010;
Hammond & Smith, 2006). Research conducted in the past has led to performance
testing using modified court sizes and ball types; however, there is still very little
knowledge regarding performance differences when making comparisons between
modified equipment and courts and standard equipment and courts (Kachel et al., 2015).
Until recently, research efforts were directed toward understanding the impact of
scaling/modified tennis equipment on young tennis players via examining just a few
12
aspects of modified equipment such as the two types of low-compression balls (Kachel et
al., 2015), racquet sizes and ball compressions (Buszard, Farrow, Reid, & Masters, 2014),
and low-compression balls and court sizes (Larson & Guggenheimer, 2013) which has
created a lack of clear understanding regarding the efficacy of the proposed scaling of
tennis equipment. Almost all research attempts on scaling tennis equipment failed to
clearly examine the influence of scaling tennis equipment in relation to psychological
considerations, and understand, interpret, anticipate their impacts on children’s desire for
long life tennis participation through motivational framework perspectives. Therefore,
this study was intended to add to the literature by exploring the influence of modified
equipment on young athletes’ perceived competence, enjoyment, and intention to
continue participation in tennis via two current theoretical models including competence
motivation theory (CMT) (Harter, 1978, 1981) and self-determination theory (SDT)
(Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000). The current study also had a qualitative and
skill acquisition focus. This supplemental evaluation provided rich data to understand if
the modified tennis equipment assists children in executing forehand and backhand
groundstrokes compared to the traditional tennis equipment.
Need for this Study
There are a number of reasons to scale sports equipment for youth and novices,
including facilitating the acquisition of skills while maintaining the overall characteristics
of the professional game. Many sports now use equipment scaling of some kind to
increase access and enjoyment of young participants in youth programs. There is not yet
a large body of evidence to support scaling of equipment (Kachel et al., 2015). In tennis,
there remains a lack of published empirical evidence regarding the effects of ball
13
compression (Farrow & Reid, 2010; Hammond & Smith, 2006) and court size (Coldwells
& Hare, 1994).
Within the state of Kuwait, a lack of physical activity is believed to be associated
with various health complications. The Kuwait Ministry of Health (2008) indicated that
health risks could be attributed to a lack of physical activity. These numbers underscore
the need for increasing children’s physical activity in Kuwait given the high number of
people, especially younger people, who are overweight or obese. Motivating children to
initiate and maintain sport participation should be a priority for government institutions
such as the Ministry of Education which represents schools.
The findings obtained from this study can be beneficial for two different reasons.
The first benefit pertains to the lack of current knowledge in regard to the influence of
scaled tennis equipment on children and youth’s physical, social, and psychological
development. There is an urgent need to investigate the influence of modified tennis
equipment on children’s perceptions of skill development, competence, enjoyment, and
intention to continue participating in tennis. Although there is consensus on the need and
importance of the scaled equipment, there are many different scaled versions across
different tennis nations. Examples of these programs are the Project 36/60 created by the
USTA; the MLC Tennis Hot Shots program created by Tennis Australia (TA); and the
Play and Stay program which was implemented by the ITF (Timmermani et al., 2015).
Due to the variations in utilizing the scaling tennis equipment worldwide, the uncertainty
surrounding the influence of scaled equipment on children’s skills and psychological
development is important to study (Kachel et al., 2015). The second primary need for
14
this study involves the potential benefits for countries such as Kuwait so that they can
adopt a useful method of coaching in a demanding sport like tennis.
Physically inactivity is a major problem and affects children and adolescents in
Kuwait (Moussa et al., 2008). More than 40% of the Kuwaiti population is younger than
15 years old (Public Authority for Civil Information, 2016). This high proportion of
youth means that there will be difficulties for the country’s health system and families
(International Diabetes Federation, 2011; World Health Organization, 2006). Students
with higher sports competence typically enjoy and participate in physical education
classes, whereas the non-athletic students avoid participating in physical education and,
thus, are more likely to develop an inactive lifestyle (Behbehani, 2014).
Research indicates that physical activity generally decreases as children move into
adulthood (Corbin, Pangrazi, & Le-Masurier, 2004; Currie et al., 2008). This trend
indicates a need for research into the eventual physical, social, and psychological impact
of involvement in sports as a young person and the connection to an active lifestyle later
in life (Russell & Symonds, 2015). Three factors significantly impact and lead to young
people leaving sports and they are the social environment, the sport, and the person’s own
developmental changes (Butcher et al., 2002). About three-quarters of youth participants
leave sport by the age of 13 because of low enjoyment and a lack of basic skills (National
Alliance for Youth Sports, 2013). Basically, when the athletic activity is no longer
enjoyable or satisfactory, young people are likely to leave (Choi, Johnson, & Kim, 2014).
It is possible that these individuals may try the sport again later, but at a less-competitive
level due to the negative experience such as adopting other interests, puberty, sports
15
burnout, less playing opportunity, intensive pressure, a coach’s disapproval, lower
perceived competence, injury, and ability (Barnett & Weber, 2008; Butcher et al., 2002).
In order to increase the likelihood that young people will participate in, and
maintain involvement in sports, it is important to recognize that their motivating factors
will differ from adults (Woods, Bolton, Graber, & Crull, 2007). Motivation is widely
understood as an important contributor to physical activity (Ntoumanis, Pensgaard,
Martin, & Pipe, 2004; Yli-Piipari, Watt, Jaakkola, Liukkonen, & Nurmi, 2009).
Additionally, research has continuously shown that enjoyment is an essential factor in
maintaining continuous involvement in physical activity (Gråstén, Jaakkola, Liukkonen,
Watt, & Yli Piipari, 2012; Prochaska, Sallis, Slymen, & McKenzie, 2003; Wallhead &
Buckworth, 2004; Yli-Piipari et al., 2009). The past 30 years of research have revealed
numerous reasons, mostly related to motivation, for the continued involvement in and
withdrawal of children and youth from sport and physical activity. Low physical
competence, limited enjoyment, and a lack of social acceptance have been the most
frequently cited factors for lack of participation.
In this regard, the Competence Motivation Theory (CMT) (Harter, 1978, 1981) is
a suitable model to understand children’s perceptions of sport competence and was
utilized in this study. The CMT was constructed based on White’s (1959) research in
which she proposed the motive toward competence. She emphasized that individuals are
intrinsically involved, through mastery attempts, to interact with their social and physical
environment following White’s (1959) work. In addition, a primary tenet of CMT is that
the sense of curiosity, the desire to seek optimal challenges, and the urge to have an effect
on one’s environment are primary motives for individuals’ behaviors (Harter, 1978). One
16
thing that should be considered from a developmental standpoint is that the positive
interaction of children with their social environment and their additional cognitive
maturation will help them to move from depending on significant others and external
criteria in assessing competence to utilizing more internal criteria and self-reward
systems to assess success. Finally, it is fundamental to understand that the balance
between the mastery attempts (successful and not successful) and the type of
reinforcement by significant others will have an impact on children’s self-perception and
intrinsic motivation (Weiss & Amorose, 2008).
Harter (1981) emphasized the role of developmental considerations in
competence motivation. Harter also emphasized that the perception of competence
dimensions will vary in content and number according to a child’s age because of the
cognitive maturation and social experiences of the child. In the current study, the
competence motivation theory was utilized to understand if changes occur in children’s
perceptions of competence due to the employment of modified and traditional tennis
equipment.
Self-determination theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2002)
was developed to explain the contributors to intrinsic motivation and the influence of
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation upon behavior. Self-determination theory is a meta
theory which contains four mini-theories: cognitive evaluation theory, organismic
integration theory, causality orientation theory, and basic needs theory (Ryan & Deci,
2002).
Proponents of SDT assert that there are universal psychological needs that need to
be satisfied to enable development in human psychological functioning, development,
17
and motivation. These basic psychological needs are the need for competence,
autonomy, and relatedness. Competence refers to the need to perceive our behaviors and
interaction with the surrounding social environment as effective. To satisfy this need to
feel competent, coaches need to provide many opportunities to increase the perception of
competence to positively influence their motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2012). The need for
autonomy refers to the need to perceive our beliefs and thoughts as freely chosen and to
perceive ourselves as the initiators of our behaviors and actions. The need for relatedness
refers to the need to perceive a sense of belonging and a connection to others. This
study’s intervention will support these needs by giving students the opportunity to choose
the appropriate equipment that they feel comfortable using to enhance their success and
feeling of competence.
Limitations of this Study
Several limitations must be discussed regarding this study. First, the study was
conducted in the State of Kuwait, and the findings may only be generalizable to this
context. Second, the sample size was relatively small, and a larger sample size would be
beneficial. The reason for the small sample size is because the young tennis player
population in Kuwait is very limited (fewer than 100 tennis players are officially
registered in the Kuwait Tennis Federation). Therefore, conducting the study in a PE
classroom is more efficient for enlarging this study’s sample size.
Summary
The influences of sport and physical activity on children and youth’s physical,
social, and psychological outcomes have been studied in the literature. In this regard, the
International Tennis Federation’s modification of (scaled) tennis equipment was
18
developed as an instructional program to encourage positive outcomes for children.
Although scaled tennis equipment is widely utilized, there is no clear empirical evidence
to support the claim that modified tennis equipment will encourage young tennis players
to maintain participation in the sport for a longer time, to enhance their perception of
competence, and to experience greater enjoyment of the game of tennis. Therefore, the
purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of scaled equipment on children’s
psychological and skill outcomes.
19
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
Research has shown that overall physical activity among young people has
continued to decline (USDHHS, 2008). Rates of physical inactivity in children and
adolescents has risen over the past 20 years in the United States creating a major concern
for the health of the nation (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012). A variety of factors
can increase a child’s risk of becoming physically inactive (e.g., sedentary behavior)
(Power, Ullrich-French, Steele, Daratha, & Bindler, 2011); however, improving
engagement in physical activity can decrease this risk (Hills et al., 2007; USDHHS,
2008).
There is widespread recognition of the physical and psychosocial benefits that
come from athletic participation (Fraser-Thomas et al., 2005). Children make up the
largest percentage of participants in organized sports (Holt, 2007). Estimates are that 27
million American children aged 6 to 18 years are involved in team sports through middle
and high schools (DiFiori et al., 2014). Additionally, organized club sports and Amateur
Athletic Union (AAU) sports offer athletic opportunities to at least 60 million American
children (DiFiori et al., 2014). Regardless of the organization providing sports
opportunities to children, physical, mental, and social benefits are clear (Fraser-Thomas
et al., 2005).
20
The Benefits of Sport Participation
Youth can reap physical, psychological, and social benefits through engagement
in sports activities (Fox, Barr-Anderson, Nieumark-Sztainer, & Wall, 2010; Krustrup,
Dvorak, Junge, & Bangsbo, 2010). It has been found that cardiovascular and
musculoskeletal fitness can be enhanced when youth participate in athletics over the long
term (Krustrup et al., 2010; Vandendriessche et al., 2012). There are also improvements
in motor coordination (Vandendriessche et al., 2012), overall physical activity (Debate,
Pettee Gabriel, Zwald, Huberty, & Zhang, 2009; Taliaferro, Rienzo, & Donovan, 2010),
decreased television viewing (Sirard, Pfeiffer, & Pate, 2006), lower body mass index and
body fat percentage (Vandendriessche et al., 2012), and an overall reduction in health
problems (Vandendriessche et al., 2012). A two-year study conducted by Krustrup and
colleagues (2010) found that as children participated more and more in small-sided
games of football (soccer), they noticed benefits across numerous areas such as stamina,
coordination, and the amount of oxygen consumed and these benefits extended to
overweight children as well.
Sports can contribute to cognitive and social development in addition to
increasing improved physical health in young people (Annesi, 2007). In addition, higher
self-esteem (Findlay & Coplan, 2008), better mood states, improved social functioning,
and greater emotional control and feelings of social adequacy can accompany
participation (Griffiths, Dowda, Dezateux, & Pate, 2010). In addition, more positive
perceptions of competence (McCarthy, Jones, & Clark-Carter, 2008) have been
associated with participation in sport.
21
Athletics can also be credited with lessening psychological and social problems,
including anxiety (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007), shyness (Findlay & Coplan, 2008),
depressed mood (Gore, Farrell, & Gordon, 2001), and hyperactivity (Griffiths et al.,
2010). A lower tendency to smoke and an increased likelihood of adopting healthy
eating behaviors were found in athletes who were part of an extensive study (n > 70,000)
assessing relationships between athletic participation and health risk behaviors of youth
in the United States conducted by Taliaferro et al. (2010). There is evidence to suggest
that this increased physical activity involvement continues throughout a participant’s
lifetime, with young athletes more likely than non-athletic peers to participate in physical
activity as adults (Backmand, Kujala, Sarna, & Kaprio, 2010). Adult leadership and
associated experience can have a huge impact on the positive or negative end results of
children’s athletic participation (Fraser-Thomas & Côté, 2009). Indeed, whether youth
engagement in sport and physical activity experience results in positive or negative
consequences depends on the interaction of many considerations in the sport setting
(Gould & Carson, 2008).
Positive Youth Development
Extracurricular activities, not exclusively sport, are essential to the developmental
process of young people (Petitpas, Cornelius, Van Raalte, & Jones, 2005). According to
Côté and Fraser-Thomas (2007), involvement in athletics is an effective means of
reaching three goals in child development. Physical health can be enhanced by
participation. Psychosocial development, such as cooperation, discipline, leadership, and
self-control, can also be improved. Motor skills can be developed and form the basis for
future success in professional or recreational athletic participation. However, many
22
sports programs have been found to focus on institutionalization, elitism, early selection,
and early specialization and these orientations do not foster the best environment for the
physical, mental, and social development of young athletes (Côté & Hay, 2002).
Research has shown that the development of desired skill levels is contingent on
deliberate practice, commitment, ambition, willingness to work hard, and good coaching
(Wojtys, 2013). These considerations should lead the athletic community to rethink
specialized training centers for youth, as they are typically developmentally inappropriate
(Jayanthi, Pinkham, Dugas, Patrick, & LaBella, 2013). In order for all youth to have
access to sports and all they have to offer, nations have to implement certain policies,
which can be established through official and unofficial programs (Fraser-Thomas &
Côté, 2006). Programs serving youth should focus on building the intrinsic motivation
that young people have to be involved in athletics. To accomplish this goal, a variety of
sports and activities should be available to youth as they develop self-regulation,
decision-making skills, and feelings of competence, all of which increase the likelihood
of creating long-term, competent athletes (Jayanthi et al., 2013). It is important for
program leaders and coaches to be aware of the tendency for the most talented athletes to
receive the most support and chances for play. All children should be granted
opportunities for participation, regardless of the pace at which they acquire and
demonstrate new skills (Wojtys, 2013). To design and implement effective
programming, it is important to understand and apply the reasons for participation or
withdrawal from athletics.
One must look through the lens of motivation to comprehend what leads youth to
participate in the first place (Power et al., 2011). Over the past 20 years, evidence has
23
been found to suggest that fun, enjoyment, demonstrating physical competence, and
acquiring peer acceptance and approval are essential in determining participation (Weiss
& Amorose, 2008). Research regarding the discontinuance of young people in sports has
found that conflicts of interest, inadequate amounts of fun, coaching personality
difficulties, and reduced playing time (Weiss & Williams, 2004) reduce motivation and
sustained involvement.
Motivational Theories of Youth Sport Participation
Involvement in athletics stands at out as the preferred structured activity for many
young people (Mahoney, Larson, Eccles, & Lord, 2005). Researchers have spent time
trying to determine and categorize what drives individuals to join and maintain
participation in athletic activities, especially for young people (Garcia-Mas et al., 2010).
Sports that are enjoyable and offer growth opportunities are likely to be attractive to play,
either as individuals or with peers (Findley & Bowker, 2009). Enjoyment is a
fundamental element of continuous participation in physical activity for young people
(Yli-Piipari et al., 2009). Enjoyment is an intrinsic motivator for involvement in physical
education (Dishman, Motl, Saunders, Felton, Ward, & Pate, 2005) and factors into some
of the major sport motivation theories, including self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan,
1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and competence motivation theory (Harter, 1978, 1981).
These theories of motivated behavior have been utilized in the comprehension and
prediction of physical activity participation and highlight the importance of positive
affect such as fun and enjoyment as proximal motivators of sport and physical activity
(Cairney et al., 2012).
24
The theories that are most relevant to the study of motivation of youth in sport in
relation to the present study are competence motivation theory (CMT) and selfdetermination theory (SDT). These two theories will be thoroughly explained to better
understand the theoretical perspective underpinning the current study and to explain the
proposed influence of modifying tennis equipment on children’s motivation by increasing
youth’s perceptions of physical competence and sport enjoyment.
Competence Motivation Theory
Effectance motivation theory (White, 1959) proposed that the amount of
motivation individuals experience is related to the level of competence they feel (White,
1959). The competence motivation model (Harter, 1978, 1981) is an extension of the
original effectance motivation model proposed by White (1959). It has been argued that
children have an innate desire to learn (Spinath & Spinath, 2005). The motoric
representation of this desire is apparent in children’s motivation to be physically
competent (Harter, 1978; White, 1959). This type of motivation is guided by, and
satisfied by, a sense of efficacy (White, 1959). In other words, the primary reason behind
children’s engagement in any task is to experience the sense of efficacy or competence
that results from learning (Spinath & Spinath, 2005).
The theory of CMT proposed by Harter (1978, 1981) stated that children strive to
succeed by exhibiting efforts (mastery attempts) to develop competency in multiple
domains including academics, peer acceptance, physical appearance, behavioral conduct,
and sport or physical activity. Children’s perceptions of competence depends
tremendously on their interpretation of success and failure experiences during mastery
attempts combined with significant adults’ feedback. According to the theory, children’s
25
perceptions and interpretations of successful mastery attempts lead to increased
perceptions of competence, positive affect, and a stronger internal locus of control. All
of these positive outcomes lead to additional attempts towards mastery and help children
maintain interest and enjoyment in the activity. However, if these attempts at mastery are
perceived as unsuccessful, their perceived competence is decreased, which often leads to
anxiety. This result can lead a child to discontinue his or her mastery attempts.
Numerous studies have supported these theoretical expectations and the theory is
important in sport and physical activity because mastery is important in the physical
domain (Zou, Liu, & Yang, 2012).
From a developmental perspective, age and cognitive development are both
important factors as a child develops perceptions of competence (Harter, 1978, Nicholls,
1984). As youth develop over time, maturation of their cognitive processes and contact
with peers can affect their competency beliefs (Harter, 1990). Children use generalized
perceptions of competence when they are 4 to 7 years old (Harter & Pike, 1984).
However, from the ages of 8 to 13, youth begin to discriminate between areas of
competence so that they make distinctions between academic and athletic and behavioral
competence, to name a few of the competence areas (Harter, 1982). As children reach
middle and late adolescence they identify additional competence domains, such as
romantic relationships and friendship and continue to increase the number of competence
dimensions through adulthood (Harter, 1988).
Another important developmental consideration involves youth’s understanding
of effort and ability which changes throughout their development (Fry & Duda, 1997;
Nicholls, 1989). Youth around the ages of 6 to 10 begin to understand how competence
26
relates to effort, ability, and eventual success or failure outcomes (Nicholls, 1978).
Specifically, they are able to understand the connection between effort and outcomes
which enhances their enjoyment and perceptions of competence after they expend effort
in an area of achievement (Nicholls, 1989). Later, after 11 years of age, youth begin to
understand that effort alone will not be enough to realize success and successful mastery
attempts and hard work must supplement effort (Scanlan et al., 2005). As youth begin to
assess and comprehend their own ability, they will naturally make comparisons to their
peers (Ruble, Boggiano, Feldman, & Loebl, 1980). Eventually, youth are able to become
more capable of making accurate perceptions of their competence (Harter, 1982; Spinath
& Spinath, 2005).
Motivation and emotion related to achievement are impacted by perception of
competence (Nicholls, 1989). People who experience high-perceived competence tend to
find pleasure in participating in activities that will allow them to demonstrate mastery
(Nicholls, 1989). Conversely, those with low-perceived competence generally do not
find pleasure or motivation in a given activity because they are concerned that they will
demonstrate their lack of mastery (Brustad, Babkes, & Smith, 2001). Children who are
not expecting to demonstrate mastery will tend to avoid the situation or will not
participate (Weiss & Ferrer-Caja, 2002). Coaches and teachers need to understand and
appreciate the impact and interrelationships among emotions, goal orientation, and
perceived competence as they contribute persistence as well as success and fun
(McCarthy et al., 2008).
A study conducted by Weiss and Horn (1990) was grounded in CMT and
included 133 female and male young athletes. The researchers assessed the relationships
27
among perceived competence, motivation, anxiety, and perceived control. The intention
of this research was to determine whether children who were accurate in their assessment
of their physical competence or overestimated or underestimated their physical
competence demonstrated certain cognitive characteristics. The participants were
between the ages of 8 and 13 years old and were involved in a summer athletic program
(N = 133). These children and youth completed questionnaires assessing perceptions of
competence and control, motivational orientation, and competitive trait anxiety. Teacher
ratings were used as an additional measure of physical competence to compare with these
young people’s evaluations. The results were standardized according to the participant’s
grade level, and an accuracy score was produced through the difference in scores.
Children could then be grouped based on the accuracy of their assessments into
underestimators, accurate raters, or overestimators according to upper and lower
quartiles of this distribution. A 2 x 2 x 3 (age level by gender by accuracy) MANCOVA
showed an interaction effect related to gender and accuracy. Girls who underestimated
their competence showed lower levels of challenge motivation and higher trait anxiety
and demonstrated more external control perceptions than their accurate or overestimating
peers. Underestimating boys had greater perceived unknown control when compared
with their accurate and overestimating counterparts. It was concluded that an
underestimating child would, thus, be more likely to discontinue participation in athletics
or demonstrate low physical achievement.
A similar study conducted by Wong and Bridges (1995) attempted to build and
utilize a motivational orientation model for youth sports that would fit Harter’s (1981)
framework. The participants included 108 male soccer players who ranged from 9 to 13
28
years of age and who completed questionnaires in the areas of control, perceived
competence, anxiety, and motivation orientation. Moreover, this research utilized
observations of the behavior of the 12 soccer coaches of the players involved in the study.
Findings suggested that perceived competence, moderated by adult feedback, level of
anxiety, and perceived control influenced motivation for athletic participation.
Specifically, they found a causal relationship between coaching behavior and athletes’
perceptions of control. Although a direct causal relationship between trait anxiety and
perceived competence was not found to be significant, the mediating role of perception of
control was found to influence the relationship between the athletes’ trait anxiety and
their perception of competence. Overall, the study supported the expectation that
children’s perceived competence, trait anxiety, and perception of control were impacted
by their coaches’ behaviors.
Klomsten, Skaalvik, and Espnes (2004) utilized the Physical Self-Description
Questionnaire as part of an inclusive study to assess the competency of 1098 female and
male children over numerous domains of physical self-concept including health, body fat,
sports competence, endurance, strength, flexibility, coordination, and global self-esteem.
Differing ages and the effects of gender were assessed at the elementary and middle
school levels as participants spanned 5th to 10th grade. These students were participating
in athletic activities during the school day or outside of school. A relationship was found
between age and each of the domains apart from health. Elementary school participants
had higher scores across each subscale, except health. Secondary students demonstrated
lower scores in physical self-concept and sports competence than the elementary
participants.
29
Boiche and Sarrazin (2009) conducted a study assessing determinants of
withdrawal from athletics among a population of French youth, specifically analyzing
body mass index, perceived competence, perceived autonomy, and self-determined
motivation. Those involved in the study were either currently involved or had withdrawn
from participation in soccer, basketball, handball, cycling, tennis, or table tennis. Of the
376 youth involved in the study, 261 were currently playing one of the previously
mentioned sports and 106 had withdrawn from one of the listed sports. The findings
suggested that those who were currently involved in an activity possessed both a higher
perception of their own competence and a higher perceived value of the sport overall than
those who had withdrawn from the sport. On the other hand, the level of athletes’
satisfaction, valuing of the sport, and parental investment were the primary reasons why
athletes dropped out of their sports. In other words, athletes who did not value the sport
and did not acknowledge opportunities and value did not continue participation in their
sport. Ommundsen and Vaglum’s (1997) study of 223 adolescent soccer players
assessed dropout rates in relation to competence perceptions and actual competence. It
was found that dropping out was best explained by a combination of low-perceived and
low actual competence. It should come as no surprise that athletic dropout rates were
higher when perceptions of competence were lower because children tend to be interested
in areas in which they feel capable and move away from those in which they do not
(Weiss & Williams, 2004).
In order to adequately support children in continuous participation in sports, it is
important for coaches to understand the primary reasons why children participate (Côté,
30
Ericsson, & Law, 2005). Primarily, children participate in sports to have fun (Crane &
Temple, 2015). Crane and Temple (2015) stated that children will start to play sports
because they want to have fun and make friends and, over time, will try to develop their
skills and to learn new ones. Children’s efforts, thus, reflect their desire to gain
competency in the athletic domain (Zou et al., 2012). When children feel that they are
successful, they are hypothesized to have greater intrinsic motivation to work hard to
become even better. According to Harter (1978, 1981), perceived competence is
essential for continuous involvement in sport. Various studies have also found a positive
relationship between children’s perceived physical competence and their overall physical
activity level (Gao, 2008; Kalaja, Jaakkola, Liukkonen, & Watt, 2010; Stein, Fisher,
Berkey, & Colditz, 2007). Positive connections between perceived competence, physical
activity reported by children, and health-related physical fitness levels have been found in
recent studies (Bagoien & Halvari, 2005; Gao, 2008).
Children stop participating in sports for a multitude of reasons. Research has
shown that these reasons include low-perceived sport competence, injuries, lack of fun,
and chronic stress from significant adults (Jowett & Cramer, 2010; McCarthy & Jones,
2007). Just as high-perceived competence could increase participation, low-perceived
competence can lead to decreased participation or withdrawal (Zou et al., 2012).
A longitudinal study conducted by Butcher et al. (2002) included 1378 children
who were followed for over a decade and these researchers found that young children
most frequently quit because of a lack of enjoyment. Overall, the majority of research is
in agreement that the high withdrawal rate from sports can be attributed to a variety of
factors, such as conflicts of interest, lack of enjoyment, low-perceived competence, lack
31
of improvement in skills, and stress and pressure from others (Butcher et al., 2002; Netz
& Raviv, 2004).
Various studies have found that competence is the strongest predictor of
motivation in the physical education setting (Taylor, Ntoumanis, Standage, & Spray,
2010). Perceived competence might be considered to be even more important than actual
competence in this relationship (Laurson, Brown, Dennis, & Cullen, 2008). For example,
Taylor et al. (2010) found that children with high-perceived physical competence
displayed greater effort in physical activity, were high in physical activity engagement,
and reported greater leisure time physical activity. Graham (2008) suggested that
discontinued participation could be related to perceived lack of competence or perceived
failure.
Perceived sport competence is, therefore, related to multiple adaptive cognitive,
affective, and behavioral consequences for youth such as enjoyment and participation in
physical activity (Kipp & Weiss, 2013). Enjoyment, or fun and pleasure (Scanlan,
Simons, Carpenter, Schmidt, & Keeler, 1993; Weiss & Williams, 2004), have typically
been linked to motivation to participate in sport (McCarthy & Jones, 2007) and the desire
and perseverance to continue participation (Scanlan et al., 1993; Weiss & Ferrer-Caja,
2002). Understanding what contributes to enjoyment and what detracts from enjoyment
for children in sport is an important research focus. When considering the limited
amount of information about what causes a lack of enjoyment, there is important research
to be conducted, especially when considering the relationship to dropout rates.
Crane and Temple (2015) conducted a systematic review of 43 studies to better
understand the factors that influenced athletic participation in relation to competence
32
perceptions and enjoyment of athletic activity. To be included in this review, certain
components had to be in place: (a) verifiable qualitative or quantitative evidence existed;
(b) participants ranged from 5 to 19 years of age; (c) withdrawal or intention to do so was
assessed in the study; and (d) the context was athletics. The majority of the selected
research in this study concentrated only on adolescent populations and 89% of the
studies’ participants were male and from the United States and Europe. Lack of
enjoyment, low perceptions of competence, social pressures, competing priorities, and
physical factors emerged as the primary causes for child and adolescent dropout. In
regard to enjoyment and children’s perception of competence, the study found these
influences were important in at least 26 different studies. This review revealed that a lack
of enjoyment and a lack of perceived competence were the most common contributors to
leaving sport. These feelings were expressed in numerous ways across the studies, such
as “not being good enough,” “not as good as I wanted to be,” and “lack of skill
improvement.” Interestingly, a very small number of quantitative studies addressed what
led to this lack of enjoyment or fun. When “lack of fun” was addressed, responses
included: lack of playing time or opportunities, dissatisfaction with the coach, and too
much time committed to training (Crane & Temple, 2015).
McCarthy and Jones (2007) examined sources of enjoyment and non-enjoyment
in young athletes between 7 to 12 years of age. The authors divided the participants into
two categories—older (middle school) and younger (elementary) children. The results of
their focus group interviews indicated that positive perceptions of physical competence
led to enjoyment in athletics. On the other end of the spectrum, perceptions of a lack of
physical competence were associated with non-enjoyment. Moreover, both groups of
33
participants identified common enjoyment sources such as perceived competence and
psychosocial support. On the other hand, both groups indicated that inappropriate
psychosocial support and a perceived lack of competence were sources of nonenjoyment.
Enjoyment
Sport enjoyment is “a positive affective response to the sport experience that
reflects generalized feelings such as pleasure, liking, and fun” (Scanlan & Simons, 1992,
pp. 202–203) and factors into most major sport-motivation theories, including the sport
commitment model (Scanlan et al., 1993) and CMT (Harter, 1978, 1981). Youth
participation in athletics is a common choice for how to spend free time for many young
people (Mahoney et al., 2005), but enjoyment is essential for continued involvement
(Dishman et al., 2005). Research has demonstrated that enjoyment and intrinsic
motivation in sport are related and both affect youth involvement and self-determination
(Deci & Ryan, 1985). It is important to consider the type of motivation guiding the
behavior as it may help predict level of involvement (Duncan, Hall, Wilson, & Jenny,
2010).
Self-Determination Theory
Self-determination theorists (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000) have
suggested that behavior can be understood through a continuum of self-determination,
stretching from intrinsic or self-regulated reasons to externally controlled reasons. Selfdetermination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) is widely used in the study of lifelong
motivation (Plotnikoff, Costigan, Karunamuni, & Lubans, 2013; Teixeira, Carraca,
Markland, Silva, & Ryan, 2012).
34
Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000) can be
explained as a dialectic and organismic method related to individuals’ motivation (Weiss
& Amorose, 2008). This theory consists of four different mini-theories (i.e., Cognitive
Evaluation Theory, Organismic Integration Theory, Causality Orientation Theory, and
Basic Needs Theory). The SDT is a theory describing human motivation, development,
and wellness (Deci & Ryan, 2008). The SDT has been extensively applied during the last
decade to examine cognitive, affective, and behavioral resultants of distinct kinds of
motivation in sport and physical activity contexts (Ntoumanis & Standage, 2009).
Historically, most theories of motivation have centered on the quantity of motivation that
individuals demonstrate for certain behaviors, SDT focuses on the types of motivation
and how each type affects behavior (Deci & Ryan, 2008). The theory explores both the
nature of positive developmental tendencies and detrimental environments for these
tendencies (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Deci and Ryan (2002) identified three essential human
psychological needs as competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Competence describes
an individual’s perception that they have the ability to master demanding tasks in a given
environment. Autonomy refers to an individual’s sense of personal control over their
behavior. Relatedness refers to the sense of connection one feels with peers in their
social community (Wilson, Mack, & Grattan, 2008). According to Ryan and Deci
(2000), perceptions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness determine self-determined
motivation. Pursuing this further, when children’s competence, autonomy, and
relatedness needs are satisfied, they are more likely to develop high intrinsic motivation
and will experience pleasure from engaging in an activity. This will lead to stronger
autonomous motives for participation in the activity (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The degree of
35
satisfaction of these needs can also predict overall psychological well-being across
cultures (Deci & Ryan, 2008). These three needs are considered “innate psychological
nutriments that are essential for ongoing psychological growth, integrity, and well-being”
(Deci & Ryan, 2000, p. 229). In order to achieve ideal development, all three needs must
be met. When they are not met, negative outcomes can be the consequence. The SDT
has been applied to sport, and researchers have proposed that greater perceived
competence, autonomy, and relatedness by young athletes should contribute to enjoyment
(Sebire, Standage, & Vansteenkiste, 2009).
Individuals who are self-determined act through their own will (Ryan & Deci,
2002). When an activity is completed for the innate satisfaction of the completion of the
task, it is considered intrinsic motivation (Teixeira et al., 2012). This type of motivation
leads to feelings of enjoyment, the use of skills, a sense of personal accomplishment, and
excitement (Deci, 1975). However, extrinsic motivation is considered the completion of
an activity for instrumental reasons (Teixeira et al., 2012). This perspective targets both
the type and the amount of motivation, with self-determined motivation types deemed
higher quality than less independent types of motivation (Sebire, Jago, Fox, Edwards, &
Thompson, 2013). Positive interaction between young athletes and their coaches, peers,
parents, and other social agents, in conjunction with the three psychological needs, can
help individuals attain multiple levels of autonomous motivational regulations over a
continuum (Deci & Ryan, 2002). The SDT also differentiates intrinsic and extrinsic
types of motivation for behavior regulation (Deci, 1975). The desire to engage in activity
for inherent satisfaction is defined as intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation leads to
feelings of enjoyment, the use of skills, personal accomplishment, and excitement (Deci,
36
1975). Extrinsic motivation means an activity is completed for reasons that may be
separate from the actual activity (Deci, 1975). For example, extrinsic motivation is when
someone participates in an activity solely for a reward or to avoid punitive consequences.
A more intrinsic form of behavioral regulation would be when an individual engages in
an activity for personal value as opposed to engaging for fun or satisfaction (Teixeira et
al., 2012). Overall, SDT proposes three different types of motivation, including intrinsic
motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation that capture the various motives, with
different levels of self-determined motivation that will drive participation in an activity
(Calvo, Cervelló, Jiménez, Iglesias, & Murcia, 2010; Deci & Ryan, 2011). Extrinsic
motivation describes motivation that is driven by something other than the actual activity
itself (Ryan, Williams, Patrick, & Deci, 2009). The four types of extrinsic motives as
described in SDT reflect controlled motives, and they are heteronomous in nature
(Teixeira et al., 2012). This theory identifies four distinct types of extrinsic motivation
(i.e., external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated
regulation) of regulation.
External regulation is the label used to describe the least self-determined type of
extrinsic motivation, as these types of motivated behaviors occur only in response to an
external demand or for the purpose of attaining a reward (Niemiec & Ryan, 2009; Ryan
& Deci, 2000). An example of external regulation would be when students join an
athletic activity only out of fear of negative repercussions if they don’t participate (Taylor
et al., 2010). Introjected regulation refers to internalized motivation that is not part of the
integrated self (Wininger & DeSena, 2012). In this case, behaviors are the consequence
37
of the desire to avoid guilt, to bolster ego, or for pride (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Ryan et al.,
2009). Participation in after-school athletics solely for the purpose of doing what “good
children do” would be an example of introjected regulation (Standage, Duda, &
Ntoumanis, 2005). Moving closer to self-determination, the next type of extrinsic
motivation is identified regulation. An individual’s actions that reflect self-endorsement
and represent her/his values are considered to be identified behavioral regulation
(Teixeira et al., 2012). This type of regulation describes when people choose to
participate because of personal value or significance (Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2006; Ryan et
al., 2009). While identified regulation reflects a greater capacity to choose one’s
participation than the previous two types, it is still extrinsic motivation because the
foundational motive is instrumental (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Standage et al., 2005). In other
words, extrinsic instrumental motives refer to the desirable separable consequences that
are not inherent in the activity itself such as participating in an activity for social
recognition. Involvement in physical activity for the sake of reaping the health benefits is
an example of identified regulation (Karagiannidis, Barkoukis, Gourgoulis, Kosta, &
Antoniou, 2015). When exercise is driven by an individual’s self-concept, they are
utilizing integrated regulation (Wininger & DeSena, 2012). The greatest amount of selfdetermination can be found in integrated regulation when identified regulations have
been fully assumed and synthesized with one’s values, goals, and needs (Ryan & Deci,
2000; Ryan et al., 2009). Research has found integrated regulation more common in
adult populations, as adults are more able to synthesize goals and values than are children
(Deci & Ryan, 2000; Vallerand, 1997, 2001).
38
The most autonomous type of motivation is intrinsic motivation, which involves
participating in an activity purely for the enjoyment and satisfaction it provides (Ryan &
Deci, 2000). Intrinsic motivation is reflected in those situations in which persons
purposely participate in sports and physical activities that they personally feel to be
exciting and pleasurable and which afford interesting occasions for learning (Deci, 1975;
Deci & Ryan, 1985). Intrinsic motivation is the most transparent form of autonomy and
demonstrates true self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 2000). People who are driven by
this type of motivation are motivated by the demand, entertainment, and excitement of
the activity (Niemiec & Ryan, 2009). Pursuing this further, when children’s participation
in activities such as sports is based on an internal locus of causality and they perceive
their behaviors to be self-determined, it is considered to be intrinsically motivated (Calvo
et al., 2010).
It is important to recognize that specific motivation types may vary with
developmental life stages. For instance, in early childhood, participation in physical
activity may manifest as intrinsically motivated play (Pellegrini & Smith, 1998) or
externally driven obedience to parents. In adolescence, physical activity may correspond
with more self-identified benefits or introjected societal expectations associated with
image of one’s body (Ingledew & Sullivan, 2002).
In order to become an ambitious and self-determined athlete, young athletes must
develop and sustain their intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000). To encourage
participation in athletics, it is essential to understand the underlying social,
environmental, and psychological factors (Sallis et al., 2006). Theory-based
interventions can be used to structure the social environment of the youth experience to
39
improve participation in physical activity (Plotnikoff et al., 2013). Advising teachers,
coaches, and parents on adequately supporting athletic activity can enhance motivation in
young athletes. The theory of self-determination describes elements of personality and
behavioral self-regulation through the relationship found in social settings between
inherent needs and environmental components (Ryan & Deci, 2000). It can be used to
comprehend motivation and behavior related to physical activity (Deci & Ryan, 2002).
Specifically, SDT is frequently applied to research that examines youth physical activity
and exercise and related motivation and behavioral changes (Standage, Gillison,
Ntoumanis, & Treasure, 2012).
Coaches can have the most prominent and continuous interaction with athletes
and, therefore, they have the potential to significantly affect the athlete’s ability to
improve (Conroy & Coatsworth, 2007). Theoretically, almost every action coaches take,
such as managing practice and game situations, and the steps they follow to make an
important decision can influence athletes’ motivation (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003).
Theorists of SDT propose that everyone has three basic psychological needs that
need to be fulfilled, regardless of any other personal characteristics (Niemiec & Ryan,
2013). Using SDT, psychological integration, social wellness, and physical health are
impacted by social-contextual influences (Curran, Hill, & Niemiec, 2013). Mageau and
Vallerand (2003) suggested that coaches can affect their players’ foundational
psychological needs and motivational outcomes (Keegan, Harwood, Spray, & Lavallee,
2009; Vazou, Ntoumanis, & Duda, 2006). Peers and coaches can impact players’
perceptions of belonging and acknowledgement of hard work and perseverance (Reeve &
Jang, 2006).
40
The SDT helps provide structure, and coaches can communicate plans and
methods for moving towards mastery (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003). These structures and
plans can include setting expectations and rules ahead of time, providing advice and help
during the activity and providing feedback afterward (Vansteenkiste et al., 2012). This is
how achievement-related competencies are built, creating a framework for behavioral
engagement. Behavioral engagement is when there are increased amounts of work and
awareness, as opposed to behavioral dissatisfaction where the participant is going through
the motions of the activity (Curran et al., 2013). Without a framework or structure,
learning becomes disorganized (Jang, Reeve, & Deci, 2010), and players become
disinterested (Soenens et al., 2007).
Curran et al. (2013) suggested that coaches are able to enhance each of the basic
psychological needs by setting students up for success with feedback and increasing
satisfaction and competence. This structure can help build perceived control in working
toward and reaching a goal (Reeve, 2006). Along these same lines, structure is related to
the satisfaction of all three psychological needs in athletics (Taylor & Ntoumanis, 2007)
and self-regulated learning in secondary school participants (Sierens, Vansteenkiste,
Goossens, Soenens, & Dochy, 2009). The SDT proposes that social agents (i.e., teachers,
parents, and coaches) impact motivation in achievement settings (Deci & Ryan, 2002;
Vallerand, 2007). Autonomy support describes situations when a mentor takes on the
perspective of the protégé (Curran et al., 2013). Conceptions of an autonomy supportive
climate (i.e., informational feedback, encouragements, and allowing learners’ work based
on their preference and providing choices) are anticipated to expand autonomous
41
motivation (Reeve & Jang, 2006), and players become disinterested (Soenens et al.,
2007).
According to SDT, the satisfaction of athletes' psychological needs of
competence, relatedness, and autonomy should be closely considered in order to enhance
athletes' motivation (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003). Deci and Ryan (1985) proposed that
autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs meeting create the opportunity for habits
or actions that were not previously internalized to then become internalized (Spray,
Wang, Biddle, & Chatzisarantis, 2006). It is essential for an individual to develop
intrinsic motivation for an activity because it indicates that they have fully recognized the
value of the activity and it has become part of their sense of self (Deci & Ryan, 2008).
Numerous cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes are impacted by motivational
regulations (Karagiannidis et al., 2015). Positive consequences of autonomous
motivation are tenacity when confronting adversity, improved performance, more effort,
focus, and a positive experience during the event. Controlling motivation has a neutral or
negative effect on these consequences (Taylor et al., 2010; Vallerand, 2007).
The SDT has been utilized in the sport and physical activity arena to examine
physical activity enjoyment (Yli-Piipari et al., 2009). In sport, enjoyment is a positive
affective response to physical activities (Scanlan & Simons, 1992) and is understood as
essential in encouraging young children to be physically active (Carraro, Young, &
Robazza, 2008). Enjoyment comes from intrinsic motivation and can be enhanced
through mastery of demanding skills (Cairney et al., 2012; Graham, 2008). The SDT is a
useful framework for understanding continuous participation or withdrawal from sports
and has also been applied in contexts outside of athletics (Calvo et al., 2010).
42
Moreno-Murcia, Huéscar, and Cervelló (2012) conducted a study from the SDT
perspective to assess persistence in sport and/or physical activity based on the value one
has of their physical education participation. The participants (n = 482) were adolescent
students from physical education classes. The authors hypothesized that learners’
perceptions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness would influence their intrinsic
motivation. In addition, they hypothesized that learners with the highest levels of
motivation would more highly value physical education lessons compared with lessmotived learners, which would eventually influence them to persist in the future in
physical activity or sport. The results showed that providing opportunities for taking
responsibility, such as giving the participants more space to choose the tasks and have
larger roles in the lesson, positively predicted psychological mediators (competence,
autonomy, and relatedness needs) and intrinsic motivation, which positively predicted the
importance students attached to physical education and the intention of the student to
continue doing sport.
In sum, participation in physical activities can benefit children in many ways,
including improving cardiovascular endurance, maintaining desirable body weight, and
enhancing overall mental health and quality of life (Rhodes, Matheson, Blanchard, &
Blacklock, 2008). However, insufficient involvement in physical activity has become a
health issue worldwide (World Health Organization, 2011). Furthermore, research
conducted to date has linked children’s physical activity and sport intentions and
behavior with perceived physical competence (Moreno-Murcia et al., 2012). Perceived
competence can be directly linked to enjoyment and can be a greater factor than feelings
of self-efficacy, enjoyment, autonomy, and relatedness regarding continuous involvement
43
in an activity (Dyrlund & Wininger, 2006). Specifically, research has continually
indicated the existence of positive relationships among high levels of physical
competence and levels of children’s participation in sports and physical activity.
A person is more likely to engage in a behavior to which they have strong
behavioral intention (Ajzen, 1991). It has been asserted by De Bruijn and Van Den Putte
(2012) that an individual’s exercise behavior can be predicted from their intentions.
Previous studies have demonstrated that a multitude of factors, such as intention, past
behavior, and controlled perceived behavior, impact athletic participation in tennis
(Chuan, Yusof, Soon, & Abdullah, 2014). Erdvik, Øverby, and Haugen (2014) proposed
a relationship between perceived physical competence, intentions, and behavior. It seems
logical that if an individual perceives they have competence in an activity such as tennis,
their intention to continue to participate would be greater, leading to higher levels of
participation than for those with lower perceived competence and intentions (Erdvik et
al., 2014).
Developmentally Appropriate Sport Modifications
Elderton (2010) stated that while there are tremendous advantages to playing
tennis, there are also difficulties for players, which might become reasons to quit the
game. In 2002, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) assembled a team of tennis
experts to determine the best way to promote tennis to beginning players. Experts
followed tennis growth in multiple nations and found an increasing number of tennis
players in various countries had difficulty maintaining involvement in the sport (Miley,
2007). Subsequently, they determined that the retention of new tennis players is
complicated by the strenuous effort and rigorous training required for young players to
44
reach advanced levels of play. Therefore, the team acknowledged that the need for
changes in tennis equipment and rules must become a high priority to address this critical
challenge, and they have recommended adaptations to make the game more fun for
children and beginners. These adaptations were introduced through a campaign called
“Play and Stay” (International Tennis Federation, 2015), which was specifically
developed for players 10 years and under (Miley, 2007). At the Annual General Meeting
of the ITF in 2010, the ITF succeeded in getting countries to vote for, and officially
support, the rule that all 10-and-under competitions starting in 2012 must be played with
the new equipment which includes slower balls, smaller racquets, smaller courts, and the
new scoring system (Miley, 2010). The modified/scaling equipment included
modifications to many aspects of the tennis game such as the three balls, and changes in
racquet size, net height, court size, and the scoring system (International Tennis
Federation, 2015). Therefore, the first change to be made to the rule book of tennis in
over a century occurred in 2012 when the ITF implemented a requirement that lowcompression balls be utilized by ITF member associations during approved 10-and-under
age competitions (Kachel et al., 2015).
Developmental Perspectives
Modified equipment can be provided to help younger players improve their skill
level and may motivate them to play for a longer period of time and to eventually seek to
play at the elite level (Martens & DeVylder, 2007). Children engage in tennis for reasons
of personal interest. One of the important reasons is to participate in a game at which
they can be competent and that has continuous action. The tennis equipment
modifications are designed mainly to increase children’s enjoyment and their sense of
45
competence by slowing down the game so that they can learn the correct strokes and
enjoy a game of continuous action (International Tennis Federation, 2015). Proper stroke
development and tactical awareness imitating the adult game can be enhanced by court
and equipment adaptations. The scaled-down courts create the opportunity for young
athletes to learn and practice patterns of attack and even net play, skills that would prove
more difficult on full-sized tennis courts (Goldfine, 2013). The emotional experience of
tennis is an important part for players 10 years of age and under (Crespo, 2010). There
are advantages to using slower balls and smaller courts, including a more positive and
dynamic first experience for the beginning players and increased retention by making the
game easier and more fun (Anderson, 2007). When tennis equipment and rules are
modified in suitable ways to match the mental and physical demands of young players,
they will also play more balls (Crespo, 2010). Barrell (2010) mentioned that slower balls
create time for a player to respond, which is critical for young players and beginners in
tennis. Players at a young age have limited coordination skills and should use slower
balls and lighter racquets in order to help them play better (Farrow & Reid, 2010). It is
important to note that these modifications were implemented based on rational
arguments, as opposed to scientific evidence (Buszard et al., 2014).
Some coaches are concerned about the logistics of using different balls and court
sizes and feel that the changes will make their lessons more complicated to organize.
These concerns match what Cabral (2010) found, which is that although 70% of tennis
players quit the game, there are some coaches that still insist on coaching in the same
traditional way, ignoring all new sophistication in coaching science and new up-to-date
research findings. Furthermore, Newman (2010) stated that there are many individuals in
46
the tennis community who disagree with the new changes in the game and believe that
players can make great careers in tennis with the regular ball and court. However,
learner-centered coaching means doing the right thing for the player, not doing what is
easiest for the coach (Elderton, 2010). Using the modified equipment such as slower
balls helps ensure that as many people as possible have the chance to enjoy and continue
playing tennis for a long time.
Cognitive Considerations
Adopting modified/scaled tennis equipment is not the sole factor that might
influence children’s skill acquisition. The cognitive developmental stage of the child and
their cognitive capacities can impact how they learn new motor skills.
Cognitive theories of skill acquisition indicate that adults learn and acquire new
skills by generating conceptual frameworks to reach their expected goal (Anderson, 1983;
Fitts & Posner, 1967; Proctor & Dutta, 1995). Working memory, the part of the brain
used for sorting and reserving verbal, visual, and episodic knowledge, is utilized for
explicit motor learning on cognitive tasks (Baddeley, 2012). Hernandez, MattarellaMicke, Redding, Woods, and Beilock (2011) suggest that child learners differ from their
adult counterparts in the way they learn and acquire motor skills.
Hernandez et al. (2011) analyzed the performance of golfers who were considered
early learners, because they learned the game before the age of 10 years, and late
learners, who learned the game after the age of 10 years. The participants’ golf putting
was analyzed in three ways: normal putting (single task), skill mechanics, and focus on a
secondary task (dual tasks). In the comparison of the single-task and dual-task
conditions, no difference was determined. In contrast, there was a strong relationship
47
between age of acquisition and skill mechanics. Early learners struggled more than late
learners when skill mechanics were the focus.
The development of working memory throughout childhood can make it difficult
for children to learn new physical skills in comparison to adults (Thomason, Race,
Burrows, Whitfield-Gabrieli, Glover, & Gabrieli, 2009). Information is sorted and
understood more slowly by children than by adults (Ferguson & Bowey, 2005) meaning
that conscious methods of skill acquisition are not as reliable and effective for children.
The sensorimotor hypothesis is that young children utilize implicit memory more than
explicit memory as they learn skills, as opposed to adults who rely much more on explicit
than implicit memory (Hernandez et al., 2011). In planning effective instruction for
motor learning, emphasis should be placed on implicit memory (Capio, Poolton, Sit,
Holmstrom, & Masters, 2013). When working with children, the use of scaled equipment
may be helpful in utilizing implicit learning by making it easier for children to perform
tasks easily (Buszard et al., 2014). In this regard, it is important to acknowledge the
influence of cognitive development factors on the process of skill acquisition in children.
The modified tennis equipment is age appropriate and was first proposed as tennis
equipment that matched young children’s developmental abilities.
Learning a sport skill is dependent upon coaches' ability to organize the coaching
process well, making the central role of a coach vital to the improvement in the athlete’s
performance (Lyle, 2002). The constraints-led perspective is athlete-centered and
suggests that successful motor learning relies on a particular interaction between the
person (athlete), the task, and the environment (Newell, 1986). Advocates of this theory
regard learning as non-linear, such that learning does not occur in a static linear
48
progression (Davids, 2010). The constraints-led theory is considered to be one of the
core methods to explain how athletes learn physical skills (Chow et al, 2009). Each
athlete is thought to be a unique complex system comprised of numerous smaller
subsystems, such as the muscular, skeletal, and cardio-respiratory systems (Brymer &
Renshaw, 2010). As an individual learns new skills, they will go through various periods
of steadiness and unsteadiness, demonstrated through changes in movement as they work
to successfully self-organize their approach to completing the skill, meaning they will
find mastery at their own pace (Renshaw & Chappell, 2010).
In an effort to comprehend how athletic skill is acquired, the Constraints-Led
Approach was created (Araújo et al., 2004; Davids et al., 2008). Ecological psychology
and dynamical systems are foundational in the origin of this theory (Araújo et al., 2006).
This model contrasts with other more traditional methods involving anticipated standard
motor patterns (Araújo et al., 2006) for all participants (Brisson & Alain, 1996; Araújo et
al., 2006). The constraints-led approach is based on the personal ways that participants
overcome specific constraints (Davids, 2010). This method emphasizes that differences
in movement patterns, indicated by shifts in stability of execution that enable participants
to adapt their movement and play to the game in whatever way is necessary to be
successful (Araújo et al., 2006).
Brymer and Renshaw (2010) considered individual constraints to be unique to the
emotional, physical, cognitive, and psychological development of the participant. Those
who change their coordination in response to dynamic environments proceed to higher
levels of skill more quickly (Davids et al., 2008). When a learner experiments and
explores, they continue to grow. Numerous factors can affect how a participant chooses
49
to engage in the exploration process including body image, fitness level, ability, and
psychological factors (Davids et al., 2008). According to Brymer and Renshaw (2010),
the individual constraints concepts reflect the idea that there are multiple unique
possibilities for solving a given task (Newell, 1986). Personal constraints are not factors
that inhibit progress toward the desired outcome (Davids et al., 2008). How an athlete
solves their movement challenges is responsive to their unique constraints (Brymer &
Renshaw, 2010). Manipulations in movement are essential as individuals work toward
mastery (Davids, Bennett, & Newell, 2006). Research has shown that expert athletes
show considerably more variability in movement than their novice counterparts (Davids
et al., 2008).
In the Constraints-Led Approach the task, setting, and participant all interact
(Davids et al., 2008; Newell, 1986). Buszard et al. (2014) proposed that adjusting task
constraints can speed up the process toward mastery. An example of this would be that
learning to strike the ball in tennis effectively involves adjusting the bounce of the ball to
an optimum height to maximize the acquisition of an acceptable movement pattern
(International Tennis Federation, 2015). Current research shows advantages in using
scaled equipment and courts as children practice their skills (Farrow & Reid, 2010;
Hammond & Smith, 2006). The use of lower-compression balls has positive implications
(International Tennis Federation, 2015) in learning skills. In contrast to regularly sized
balls, lower-compression balls move through the air and behave differently, making them
ideal for young, novice players (Farrow & Reid, 2010; Hammond & Smith, 2006).
Additional research indicates that racquet size can make a difference in performance as
well (Elliott, 1981). The smaller racquets provide opportunities to increase horizontal
50
movement while decreasing vertical movement (Groppel, 1977). Ball compression can
be analyzed as a change to any of the three constraints that impacts the progression of
skill development (Kachel et al., 2015). Research into scaling has not always eliminated
the impact of coaching or adequately divided experimental and control groups by ability
or age level (Hammond & Smith, 2006). More research and evidence is needed to
determine best practices in regard to task and equipment scaling and skill development
(Buszard et al., 2014). As Farrow and Reid (2010) commented, “the challenge now lies
in establishing some practical scaling recommendations that help to foster a love for the
game and expedite skill acquisition” (p. 232). According to Farrow and Reid (2010),
improving skills and demonstrating how enjoyable tennis can be are the main motivators
behind scaling tasks and equipment in tennis.
The concept of scaling equipment and modifying games to better suit the physical
capabilities of youth was first raised in the 1970s as the result of worry over physical
expectations of adult sports (Winter, 1980). Recently, equipment modifications in tennis
have started to mirror the growth and physical development trajectories of young people
(Larson & Guggenheimer, 2013). This is similar to other sports where the field, baseball
diamond, or gymnasiums are scaled to the size of youth athletes (Pang & Ha, 2005). In
addition, tennis and other sports such as soccer and basketball have all been made more
accessible to children through modifications (Larson & Guggenheimer, 2013). In order
to better understand the efficiency of the modified tennis equipment promoted to the
children who are interested in tennis, the following questions proposed by Menear and
Davis (2007) must be answered:
•Will the participant be able to engage in the activity sufficiently?
51
•Will the activity motivate participants to continue engaging in physical
activities?
•If it is an inclusive activity, will all participants feel successful as a result of their
involvement?
•If it is an inclusive activity, will all participants feel challenged during the
activities?
According to Farrow and Reid (2010), motivating youth to participate in tennis by
improving the attainment of skills and presenting tennis in an enjoyable fashion are the
main reasons for modifying and scaling equipment. Unfortunately, objective research to
justify this claim is lacking (Buszard et al., 2014). Therefore, this study will examine the
influence of scaling tennis equipment to young children’s psychological and skill
acquisition compared to children using traditional tennis equipment.
52
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides a thorough explanation of the research design and
methodology used in the study as well as the means of data analysis, including the
statistical analysis. The instruments used in the study are explained, and their
measurement properties are described.
Participants
A convenience sample of young male tennis players (n = 100) ranging in age from
7 to 10 years old from an elementary school in the Alasma educational district in the
State of Kuwait were the participants in the study. All participants attended an
elementary school during the 2015-2016 academic years under the authority of the
Ministry of Education.
Research Design
A mixed-method research design was utilized in this study to better understand
the influence of modified tennis equipment on children’s enjoyment, perceived tennis
competence, and intention for future participation in tennis. The mixed-method approach
is a beneficial approach to explore and understand in depth a researched phenomenon
(Driscoll, Appiah-Yeboah, Salib, & Rupert, 2007).
A purposive sampling method was used in an effort to represent the general
population and enhance the generalizability of the study’s findings (Teddlie & Yu, 2007).
53
Participation was voluntary, and all participants who were recruited had very limited or
no experience in tennis. The participants (n = 100) were recruited from two third- and
two fourth-grade classrooms. The participants from the four recruited classrooms
included one third- and one fourth-grade classroom (n = 50) assigned to the experimental
group and an additional third-grade and fourth-grade classroom (n = 50) were assigned to
the control group. Participants in the two modified (experimental) tennis equipment
groups (n = 50) were introduced to, and taught, the sport of tennis by using the modified
tennis equipment as they learned the game. This modified equipment included three
different sizes of tennis racquets (sizes 23, 25, and 26), low-compression tennis balls
(25% low-compression red balls, which is slower than the regular tennis ball), a smallersized tennis court (11-12m long x 5-6m wide), and a shorter net height (80 cm). The two
traditional tennis equipment groups (n = 50) were coached and introduced to tennis
through the use of traditional tennis equipment such as adult tennis racquets (sizes 23, 25
and 26), regular tennis balls (i.e., yellow tennis ball—adult sized), a smaller-sized tennis
court (11-12m long x 5-6m wide), and a shorter net height (80 cm) (Figure 1).
54
Figure 1. USTA description of the Quickstart's three stages.
Intervention
The lead investigator has spent more than 11 years in the field of education as an
elementary school physical education teacher and roughly 19 years as a tennis coach in
Kuwaiti tennis clubs. The lead investigator was an active tennis coach in the Kuwait
Tennis Federation and certified with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) as a
professional tennis coach. In this role, the researcher endeavored to contact the best and
most-willing personnel in the schools and official tennis clubs in the State of Kuwait in
an effort to conduct the research. The researcher contacted the physical education
teachers and school principals to request their permission and their verbal assent to
participate in the study. The necessary verbal and written permissions to conduct the
study in their school were first obtained from school district administrators and the
school’s principal, and then written consent and written and verbal assent were obtained
from the parents and children, respectively. The tennis intervention took place during
normal physical education classes so that the participants would consider the tennis
55
instruction to be part of their normal school curriculum. This use of a natural
environment allowed for a more natural and real-world environment for participation.
The duration of the intervention was four weeks, and each week included three
practice lessons for each group. The two coaches, four PE teachers, the director of the
PE department, and the researcher met before starting the intervention. The researcher
met with the coaches and all staff in the study to explain the purpose and the goals of this
study. The researcher explained and trained all personnel involved in the study in regard
to the procedures, structure, coaching drills, schedule of practices, etc. When the
participants came to the lesson, the coach divided them into four smaller subgroups, and
they played different activities at different stations (i.e., each station focused on one or
two of the six technical aspects). Each subgroup played for 5 minutes at each station.
This approach created two rotations during the 40-minute lesson, which provided the
opportunity for the coach to instruct each subgroup of players twice. For example, the
coach instructed the players and sent them to apply what they learned during the first
rotation, and then in the second rotation, he repeated the instruction and provided
technical feedback. The coach emphasized explanations of the appropriate forehand and
backhand techniques with consideration given to each of the six checkpoints in the
Tennis Australia’s technical fundamentals checklist such as grip, circular swing, low-tohigh swing racquet, step forward step, impact ball, and follow-through (Tennis Australia,
2012). The role of the four physical education teachers was to manage the movement of
the players between stations and to give the coach enough time to communicate
effectively with the students. In addition, physical education teachers had the
56
responsibility to provide general instructions such as the movement speed, distance
between students, and other skill instructions.
All participants and groups were coached with the same instructional methods and
with the same two coaches. The coaches rotated randomly between the four groups to
reduce the order effect. Coaches’ behaviors were discussed during frequent meetings
with the coaches, and the best teaching practices were discussed. The two coaches were
encouraged via the meetings or during the practices to support all groups positively and
give equal experience to all children.
Instruments and Protocols
The purpose of this study was to contrast traditional and developmentally
modified methods of tennis instruction. A mixed-methods approach was undertaken to
determine if differences existed in players’ psychological characteristics and skill
acquisition between the modified and traditional tennis equipment groups. Students
completed self-report instruments of enjoyment, perceived competence, and intention to
pursue playing tennis in the future. In addition, focus group methodology was employed
to understand to a greater level of depth the students’ perceptions regarding the tennis
experience through the utilization of modified tennis equipment. In addition, the quality
of the students’ skills was assessed through Dartfish movement software to evaluate
changes in students’ skill acquisition, before and after the intervention.
Questionnaire Completion
The focus of the questionnaire data was upon changes in participants’ tennis
enjoyment, perceptions of tennis competence, and intention to continue to play tennis in
the future. These outcomes were assessed through a situational self-report questionnaire.
57
This questionnaire included nine items (i.e., three items for each dependent variable) and
was randomly listed to measure the three dependent variables. These nine items were
created in an attempt to provide situational assessments of the students’ experiences with
tennis. All nine questions were scored using a 5-point scale using faces, with 5
representing happy face, and 1 representing sad face (see Appendix A).
The first of the three scales, children’s perceptions of tennis enjoyment, were
measured by rating the following three items: (a) “I am having fun playing tennis”; (b) “I
think tennis is an enjoyable sport”; and (c) “I like tennis because it is fun”. Although
these three items have different wording, they reflect the same construct of tennis
enjoyment. The idea from these three items is to examine whether the participants
enjoyed their tennis participation. The three questions measuring children’s tennis
enjoyment were adapted and modified to be tennis specific from the revised Physical
Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) (Motl, Dishman, Saunders, Dowda, Felton, & Pate,
2001). The second instrument measured children’s perceptions of competence regarding
tennis using the following three items: (a) “I feel competent in tennis”; (b) “I think my
tennis skills are good”; and (c) “I think that I can be a good tennis player”. The three
questions concerning children’s perception of competence incorporated in this study were
adapted and modified to tennis specific from the Self-Perception Profile for Children
(SPPC) (Harter, 2012). These items were modified to appropriately measure situational
competence that was assessed in this study. In addition, the tennis-specific focus was
also created for use in this study. The third scale assessed children’s intention to continue
to play tennis in the future and the participants responded to the following three items: (a)
“I would like to play tennis every week”; (b) “I would like to play tennis outside of PE
58
lessons”; and (c) “I think I would like to be a tennis player”. These three items were
modified and adapted from the Intention to be Physically Active scale (Hein, Muur &
Koka, 2004) to appropriately evaluate students’ intentions to continue participating in
tennis in the future.
The nine-item questionnaire was completed one time each week, following the
completion of one of the three weekly lessons. The day that each group was surveyed
varied based upon convenience and practicality. Thus, all 100 participants completed the
questionnaire on four separate occasions over the four-week intervention. The
questionnaire took approximately 10 minutes to complete, and the PE teachers were able
to assist the children with the reading of the questionnaire, if needed. Students completed
the survey in the school’s gym. As the survey was administered in elementary schools in
Kuwait, the questionnaire was provided to students in their native language of Arabic.
Back Translation Method
The nine-item survey utilized in this study was translated into the Arabic language
through the back translation technique. In this regard, all nine items from the three
questionnaires (English version questionnaire) were sent to a bilingual expert in the field
of sport and exercise science who translated the questionnaire into the Arabic language.
Then, the translated questionnaire in the Arabic version was sent to another bilingual
expert in the sport and exercise science field to translate the questionnaire back into the
English language. This process was meant to ensure that language and terminology used
to construct the items in the Arabic version truly reflected the meaning of the items used
in the English version before introducing the questionnaires to the children. The original
versions of the questionnaire and the back-translated version were compared by the
59
author to make sure that they were consistent. In addition, the Arabic questionnaire was
then sent to a pool of three active physical education teachers in Kuwait to further clarify
the language used in the nine-item questionnaire and to assess the understandability of
the instrument for children.
Focus Groups
Five children from each of the four groups (n = 20) were purposefully selected
and were asked to participate in the focus groups. Each focus group consisted of five
student interviewees from the same classroom and they were interviewed by their PE
teacher. The focus group met one time for approximately 20 to 30 minutes during their
PE lesson on two separate occasions. Each session was conducted and managed by one
of the PE teachers. To illustrate, when five students from 3/1 came to meet for the focus
group interview, the same classroom (3/1) teacher took the role of the interviewer, and
asked the interview questions and discussion. The process was repeated for the other
three classrooms. The participants were encouraged, through friendly dialogue, to
express their feelings and perceptions about their tennis experience and their interest in
continuing to play tennis. A general guide structured the interviews (see Appendix B).
Sample types of questions included:
1. Can you tell me how you felt about learning tennis?
2. In your opinion, what were the best parts of the tennis lessons? Why? Can you
provide an example?
3. What activity and equipment (racquet and/or ball) helped you to play the best
with your friends and/or with a wall? Could you tell me why and give me examples?
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4. In your opinion, what can we do as PE teachers to improve this program?
Could you give examples?
Technique Assessment
Twenty students were randomly selected from the overall group of participating
students (10 from the modified equipment group and 10 from the control group) and
included in the technique assessment. Children who participated in this portion of the
research were videotaped twice (one time in the first session and one time in the last
session), and their learning was assessed through Dartfish software. The Tennis
Australia’s technical fundamentals checklist (Appendix C) assess the quality of their
forehand and backhand groundstrokes. The checklist consisted of six fundamental check
points (grip, circular swing, low-to-high swing, step forward, impact, and follow through)
(Tennis Australia, 2012). The coaches rated children’s skill performance (forehand and
backhand), and the rating system was based on the Australian fundamental checklist and
each skill performance was given a score ranging between 0 and 6 points. Players were
awarded points in relation to how many of the technical fundamentals (grip, circular
swing, low-to-high swing, step forward, impact, and follow through) that they correctly
executed.
The participants’ movements were recorded via two camcorders (i.e., captured at
25 Hertz). The camera was positioned seven meters away from the players and in the
front and to the side of the participants as recommended by the ITF. The movements
were assessed through Dartfish software, which is analytical software with movement
functions (i.e., slow motion, sequential pictures mode, body angles indication tool, and
two-screen display) that enabled coaches to analyze the participants’ movement and
61
performance (Dartfish Software, 2016). Each participant had two non-sequential trials
with each trial consisting of five forehands and five backhands. This gave the players
two trials each to perform. Technique assessment was also dependent upon the
consistency of the flight of the ball coming to the children. Therefore, to maximize the
consistency of flight of the balls sent to the participants across all trials during the
assessment, the coaches threw each ball (i.e., underhanded throw) in such a way that it
should land in a specific area located in front of and on the forehand side of the
participants (depending on whether the player was right- or left-handed). If the coach’s
throw did not land in the appropriate location, the coach had to repeat the throw and the
subsequent stroke was evaluated.
Teacher Interviews
The primary physical education teachers for the four recruited classrooms assisted
in conducting this study intervention. These teachers were also interviewed individually
as sources of knowledge about the effectiveness of the intervention. The unstructured
one-on-one interviews sought as a means to gain teachers’ perceptions in regard to
changes in their classroom students’ perceptions of enjoyment, perceptions of
competence, and intentions to continue in tennis following the intervention. The physical
education teachers presented with open-ended questions to the students regarding the
students’ participation in this study. The interview took place in a convenient location
for the physical education teachers. A general guide structured the interviews (see
Appendix D). Sample types of questions included:
1. Do you think students in your classroom enjoyed playing tennis throughout
the intervention? Could you explain?
62
2. At the end of the intervention, do you think students in your classroom started
to feel bored and did not feel that tennis was enjoyable? Explain.
3. Did students in you classroom share with you the difficulties they had and
their efforts during playing tennis? Could you share some examples?
4. Could you compare students’ levels of enjoyment, perceptions of competence,
and intentions to continue to play tennis in the future between the groups with
modified and traditional tennis equipment?
Additional Data Sources
In this study, some extra and optional activities and opportunities were provided
for all students during the recess time to purposefully collect data to use to understand the
impact of the tennis equipment on the students’ motivation. The PE teachers did not
emphasize the importance of these opportunities and activities to the participants. The
primary goal of these activities was to understand students’ natural and spontaneous
reaction toward playing tennis and the use of tennis equipment. The reason behind
collecting such data was to construct additional understanding of the influence of the
tennis equipment on children’s tennis enjoyment, perception of competence, and
intention to continue play tennis after the intervention. The additional data were utilized
to support and better understand the findings of this study. Students’ engagement in
these activities were carefully observed to collect different types of data such as
percentage of participation, rally points, type of playing tennis format (individually
and/or group play), and times of visiting the PE gym. The data were compared between
students in the modified and traditional tennis equipment.
63
Institutional Review Board Approval
Institutional Review Board approval from the University of Northern Colorado
was obtained prior to the data collection process. Since all of the potential participants in
this study were children under the age of 18 years old, this research study was submitted
under the expedited review category to the IRB. It was the researcher’s responsibility to
consider all possible risks to the participants during the implementation of the study, and
all of the IRB criteria for conducting research on children were followed to ensure the
participants’ safety. Additionally, the probability and magnitude of harm/discomfort
anticipated was not greater, in and of itself, than that ordinarily encountered in daily life
or routine physical/psychological tests (mild anxiety, embarrassment, physical
discomfort, etc.), and the entire study took place during the physical education lessons.
Therefore, all of the school’s rules were employed and respected to enhance the safety of
the participants. In addition, parents, children, and coaches all provided IRB consent or
assent forms (Appendices E and F). The parental signed consent forms had clear
explanations about the research and all necessary information to ensure that parents and
children clearly recognized the purpose of the study and all obligations and risks
corresponding with their participation in the study. Children were also provided verbal
assent to participate in the study and had the right to discontinue their participation at any
time. More importantly, since some participants were video-recorded, all parental and
child written consent forms included a clear section suggesting the possibility of filming
the children during the intervention, and parents communicated their willingness to have
their child videotaped. Finally, it was the researcher’s responsibility to ensure participant
confidentiality by following all standard protocols stated in the IRB criteria for safe
64
research implementation. Thus, the researcher clearly stated in the participation consent
forms that it was the researcher’s priority to ensure confidentiality at all times. Since this
study was conducted in another country (i.e., Kuwait) and since the Arabic language is
the primary spoken language in the State of Kuwait, all necessary consent forms and
questionnaires were translated into Arabic language and submitted to the IRB committee
in English and Arabic form.
Data Analysis
Descriptive data were analyzed through the SPSS 20.0 program, and frequencies,
means, standard deviations, and correlations were computed for all variables under
examination. In addition, using the criteria employed by Tabachnick and Fidell (2013),
responses exceeding ±3.29 standard deviations from the mean were considered to be
outliers.
A two way repeated measures ANOVA (RM ANOVA) was conducted to
determine if differences existed between the groups on each of the dependent variables of
enjoyment, perceived competence, and intention to continue participate in tennis. A
thematic analysis was used to analyze the focus group interviews. The PE teachers
interviewed the students in the focus groups, and all interviews were audio recoded. On
the other hand, the researcher managed the PE teachers’ interviews. In other words, the
PE teachers (interviewee) were interviewed by the researcher, and all interviews were
also audio recorded. The researcher took the responsibility for the transcription process.
The interview transcripts were sorted and coded to infer the primary themes and quotes
that were “highly representative of each theme” were included. According to Creswell’s
(2013) protocol to ensure the credibility of the qualitative findings, prolonged
65
engagement and peer review were conducted. Prolonged engagement occurred through
the extent of the involvement of the PE teachers who conducted the intervention and the
focus groups at the end of the second semester of the 2015-2016 academic year.
All students’ focus group and individual teacher interviews were audio taped and
the transcription process was conducted by the researcher. After transcribing the content
of the audio interviews, the researcher read the transcripts multiple times to start
recognizing the data. Sorting and coding of the data took place as an initial step before
making inferences about the general themes represented in this study finding. Indeed,
transcribing audiotaped data into written format is challenging, especially for children’s
interviews. Moreover, children used different accents and many different terminologies
when expressing their perception of enjoyment, competence, and intention to play tennis
as they had varied family backgrounds.
To assess the improvement in the participants’ skill technique, pre- and post-tests
were administered prior to, and after, the study’s intervention. The pre- and post-tests
were based on testing techniques of 20 randomly chosen participants, including ten from
each group. The test assessed the participants’ forehand and backhand stroke based on
the Tennis Australia’s technical fundamentals checklist (Tennis Australia, 2012). The
coaches rated each child after evaluating their performance. To illustrate, each of the 20
students had two trials on the forehand and two trials on the backhand stroke for both the
pre- and post-test. For the forehand side, each trial was consisted of two shots. The
coaches evaluated each of the two shots by giving them a point rating (e.g., first shot, 3
points, and second shot, 5 points). The sum of the point ratings for the two shots was the
first trial’s score (e.g., 8 points). The second trial followed the same rating process for
66
the forehand on the same side (e.g., first shot, 3 points, and second shot, 4 points, for a
total of 7 points). Then the total sum of the two trials in the forehand side (e.g., 8 points
for the first trial, and 7 points from the second trial, for a total of 15 points) was
considered as the final pre-test score for the participants in the forehand side. This
process was repeated for the post-test. The total score of the pre-test was compared with
the post-test for the same participant to evaluate the presence, or not, of skill
improvement. The same process was used for the backhand side for each participant. A
Mann-Whitney U test was then conducted and the mean change scores were then
compared between the participants in the modified group and the participants in the
traditional group to discern any significant differences in skill acquisition and
improvement between the control and experimental groups.
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CHAPTER IV
RESULTS
A mixed-methods design was utilized in this study to provide a depth of
understanding regarding the influence of modified tennis equipment on children’s tennis
enjoyment, perceptions of competence, and intention to continue to play tennis in the
future. Various data sources were used including self-report questionnaires, skill
assessments, observational data, individual interviews with teachers, and focus group
interviews with children. Utilizing varied sources of data was beneficial in providing rich
and detailed information about the effects of the intervention.
This study endeavored to find answers for the following research questions:
Q1 Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in tennis enjoyment relative to players who use traditional
tennis equipment?
Q2 Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their perceived competence relative to players who use
traditional tennis equipment?
Q3 Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their intention to continue to participate relative to players
who use traditional tennis equipment?
Q4 Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their ability to execute forehand and backhand
groundstrokes relative to players who use traditional tennis equipment?
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The first section of this chapter provides discussion of the questionnaire and
demographic data. The nature of the data collection with the questionnaire is provided by
Figure 2.
Four-week Tennis Intervention
Week 1
Situational questionnaire
First administration
Week 2
Situational questionnaire
Second administration
N = 100
Students
Week 3
Situational questionnaire
Third administration
Week 4
Situational questionnaire
Fourth administration
Figure 2. The situational questionnaire procedure.
The second section of this chapter is comprised of students’ focus group data.
The third section includes video analysis results. The fourth section includes the
presentation of data from four teachers’ individual interviews. Figure 3 shows each
classroom number, the type of tennis equipment used, and the information about the PE
teachers’ interviews.
69
Teacher
Interviews
All four PE teachers
assisted in the fourweek intervention
Third grade
teacher
Third grade
teacher
Fourth grade
teacher
Fourth grade
teacher
3/1
3/2
4/2
4/4
using modified
equipment
using traditional
equipment
using modified
equipment
using traditional
equipment
Figure 3. Physical education teachers interview procedure.
The fifth section of this chapter includes observational data. All participants in
this study were provided with opportunities and activities for extra engagement in tennis
during recess time and outside of the PE lessons. Figure 4 demonstrates the methods that
were utilized to acquire the data.
Playing Format Tennis Competence Racquet Preference Recess Period Intention to Continue Play Tennis Students' Attendance Enjoyment Figure 4. Type of observational data.
70
Demographic Description
The participants were taken from one elementary school in the State of Kuwait.
The male students who participated ranged in age from 8 to 11 years old. The breakdown
by specific age was: age 8 (n = 23, 23%), age 9 (n = 43, 43%), age 10 (n = 33, 33%), and
age 11 (n = 1, 1%). In regard to tennis experience, only four participants had played
tennis previously, and these students had all played four or fewer times.
Descriptive Statistics
To address the first three research questions, the situational questionnaire was
completed on four occasions. The situational questionnaire included nine
questions. These nine questions measured children’s tennis enjoyment, perception of
tennis competence, and intention to continue to play tennis after this study’s four-week
intervention. Importantly, the pre-test to post-test comparisons were of greatest interest
because they reflected the overall effectiveness of the intervention. Therefore, research
questions 1, 2, and 3 were analyzed based on a comparison of the means between Week 1
and Week 4 of this study intervention on the variables of children’s tennis enjoyment,
perceived tennis competence, and intention to continue to participate in tennis.
Research Question 1
The first research question was:
Q1 Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in tennis enjoyment relative players who use traditional
tennis equipment?
The results from a two-way repeated measures ANOVA indicated that there were
significant differences in enjoyment between students in the modified tennis equipment
group and students in the traditional tennis equipment group, F (1, 1, 96) = 23.76, p <
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.001. In this regard, students in the modified tennis equipment group improved in tennis
enjoyment over the course of the study, whereas the traditional tennis equipment group
did not improve. The Week 1 enjoyment mean for the modified equipment group was
4.32 (SD = .96), and their Week 4 mean for enjoyment was 4.72 (SD = .71). Conversely,
the Week 1 enjoyment mean for the traditional equipment group was 4.55 (SD = .96), and
their Week 4 mean for enjoyment was 3.52 (SD = 1.50) (Figure 5).
5 4.5 4 3.5 3 ModiMied Group 2.5 Traditional Group 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Figure 5. Means for groups on tennis enjoyment.
In addition, during the four-week intervention, students’ perceptions of enjoyment
followed different trajectories for the modified and traditional tennis equipment groups.
The modified equipment group demonstrated an increase in enjoyment over time whereas
the traditional equipment group showed a general decline in enjoyment over time except
for the period between Week 1 and Week 2.
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Table 1
Means and Standard Deviation for Enjoyment for the Modified and Traditional Tennis
Equipment Groups
Week 1
Mean
SD
Students’ Enjoyment
Week 2
Week 3
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Week 4
Mean
SD
Modified
Equipment
4.32
.96
4.55
.88
4.63
.85
4.72
.71
Traditional
Equipment
4.55
.96
4.65
.78
4.41
.97
3.52
1.50
Group
The two focus groups provided rich and detailed qualitative data to better
understand students’ perceptions in regard to their tennis enjoyment, perceptions of
competence, and intention to continue to play tennis in the future. The interviews
consisted of 10 main questions (see Appendix B). However, the conversational nature of
the focus group interviews encouraged the interviewer to inquire further using some
additional questions to better explore and understand students’ perceptions of enjoyment.
Data from the students’ focus group interviews were sorted and coded to identify the
general themes.
Students’ Focus Group Interviews:
Modified Tennis Equipment Group
The students in the focus group were asked to evaluate the tennis lessons and their
liking of tennis. Four themes were identified from the focus group data with the
intervention group and are presented below.
Theme 1: Tennis is a fun and enjoyable sport. The students in the two
modified equipment classes perceived tennis to be an enjoyable and fun sport. They
mentioned how much they enjoyed tennis and that they preferred to play tennis rather
than to do other activities. One participant stated, “I love tennis because it is fun and
73
easy.” Another participant stated, “I did not know tennis was this fun. I want to play it
every day forever.” Another student agreed with his friends about how enjoyable tennis
is and how much fun it was playing tennis by stating, “Yes, like you said ‘tennis is fun,’
and I think it is the best sport in the world.”
Theme 2: Integrate tennis into the physical education curriculum. The
majority of the students liked the idea of integrating tennis into the PE curriculum. For
example, a student stated, “It would be great if we could also play tennis next year. I am
bored with playing only soccer, basketball, and handball, and I wish my teacher would
put tennis in the PE curriculum.” Although some students did not clearly exhibit a desire
to integrate tennis into the PE curriculum, they used phrases and words that reflected
their readiness to engage in tennis and to use tennis equipment during the academic year.
For instance, a student indicated, “I really, really would like to play tennis in every PE
lesson. If you [PE teacher] agree to keep tennis, I promise you I will wear my PE
uniform every PE lesson.” In the same line of thinking, another student noted, “I think it
would be wonderful if we could play tennis every year and not only for this time.”
Theme 3: Attractive tennis equipment. Tennis was recognized as an attractive
sport for students in the modified tennis group. It was interesting how children were very
specific when they were providing their opinion in regard to tennis and tennis equipment
and, in this case, the modified tennis equipment. The children commented that they liked
the modified tennis equipment such as the color of the ball and racquets, and the modified
equipment had a positive effect on their enjoyment. For example, a student stated, “The
red ball is beautiful. It is fun to play with it and easy to see it when playing with it.”
Another student noted, “The racquets are nice, colorful, and light.” In addition, one
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student expressed that the size of the racquet was the reason why he had fun by stating, “I
wasn’t having fun until I switched my racquet from the big racquet to the small racquet. I
could not control the ball, and I kept missing the ball.”
Theme 4: Playing with friends. The students mentioned that their ability to play
tennis individually and with friends was enjoyable such as playing against the wall to
practice and playing with friends in the small tennis court in the PE gym. A student
stated, “It was fun to play tennis with my friends. I was the best one who was able to
play and did not miss any balls.” Another student also supported this idea by noting,
“Me, too, I played with the wall more than 10 points, and I challenged Ahmed and
Mohamed, and I won the challenge.” Another student indicated, “Me and my friends
always come during recess to play the basketball challenge, which is who can be the first
one who scores the tennis ball in the basket. It is fun.” It is important to recognize that
the students identified their ability to play tennis with friends in relation to this theme.
Focus Group Interviews: Traditional
Tennis Equipment Group
Students in the traditional equipment group also commented that they generally
enjoyed tennis. However, some students also mentioned that they occasionally felt bored
or did not enjoy tennis because of the difficulty of maintaining a rally for a longer period
of time. The following three themes were drawn from the raw data communicated by the
students who participated in the four focus group interviews for the third and fourth grade
classes who used the traditional tennis equipment during this study intervention.
Theme 1: Tennis is a fun and enjoyable sport. Similar to the students in the
modified tennis equipment group, students in the traditional group perceived tennis to be
a fun and enjoyable sport. They explained that they had a good time playing tennis. One
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participant stated, “Tennis is a wonderful sport, and I had a lot of fun playing it. I wish I
had played it before now.” Another participant indicated, “Yes, yes, tennis is a lot of fun
and a cool game.”
Theme 2: Integrate tennis into the physical education curriculum. Students
supported the integration of tennis in the PE curriculum. They also requested tennis as a
component of the PE lessons. For example, one student stated, “It is a great and
enjoyable sport to have in school.” Students perceived tennis to be an enjoyable sport
and thought that it could be a good fit in the PE lessons. For example, a student noted, “I
had a fun time playing tennis during the PE lessons. Tennis is a good sport, and there are
a lot of nice things you can do with the racquet and the ball in PE lessons.” Another
student stated, “I wish you [PE teacher] could put tennis in the curriculum and let us play
tennis every year because it is fun and a good sport.”
Theme 3: Concerns in regard to tennis equipment. Some students mentioned
that they had difficulties and some issues playing with tennis equipment during the PE
lessons. Students identified these concerns in different ways and related them to their
level of enjoyment and boredom during the PE lesson during the tennis intervention. For
example, a student stated, “It wasn’t fun when I had to play with my friends at the tennis
court station because me and my friend could not hit the ball correctly for a long time.
Sometimes I was chasing the ball more than playing.” Another student indicated, “I did
not feel some stations were fun. I couldn’t play with the wall.”
Another concern was directed at the tennis equipment. Although all students
were given the opportunity to choose between different tennis racquet sizes, the majority
of participants preferred to use the smallest size racquet which is even smaller than what
76
the International Tennis Federation and United States Tennis Association have
recommended. For instance, a student noted, “Using the big racquets wasn’t fun, and
they were too big. I couldn’t play with my friend, and I asked the coach to change it to
the smaller one.” In a similar way, another participant mentioned, “Every time I played
during recess, I chose the smallest racquet because it was the best for the racing game.”
Physical Education Teacher
Interviews
Interviewing the four PE teachers who were assisting in conducting this tennis
intervention was helpful in better understanding students’ enjoyment. It is important to
clarify that all teachers assisted in all PE lessons during the intervention. Although the
teachers were individually interviewed, the similarity in their opinions was notable.
Representation of the PE teachers’ responses will be combined under each theme to avoid
reiterating the same comments. Each PE teacher was interviewed, and their overall
responses were sorted and coded to determine general themes regarding students’ tennis
enjoyment.
The teachers’ responses were coded based on their classroom number and the type
of tennis equipment used in their classroom. To illustrate, when quoting, the teacher of
Third Grade Classroom 1 was as Tm 3/1, which means (T) teachers, (m) modified tennis
equipment group, and 3/1 Third Grade Classroom 1. Similarly, Tt 3/2 refers to (T)
teachers, (t) traditional tennis equipment group, and 3/2 Third Grade Classroom 2.
Theme 1: High student enjoyment. Generally, all four PE teachers stated that
students in their classrooms and in the other classrooms had fun and enjoyed playing
tennis, irrespective of the type of tennis equipment. However, teachers mentioned that
during, and at the end, of the tennis intervention, a handful of students in the traditional
77
tennis equipment group started to lose interest, and their level of enjoyment started to
decline. This theme is represented in the following quotes:
During the course of my 17 years of experience, I did not see my students
enjoying and engaging in my classroom as much as I saw them doing so with the
PE tennis lessons. Although the classroom structure was almost identical to our
regular PE lessons, the kids were super happy and kept actively engaging from the
beginning to the end of the research. (Tm 3/1)
I think the students in all groups were very happy with tennis and the colorful
equipment, especially the balls. It was nice to see them all playing and active
during this month. I think it would be great to integrate tennis into the PE
curriculum, especially the modified tennis equipment, as it is appropriate for kids,
such as the colors and sizes. We can do many things with the modified tennis
equipment to make the kids more engaged and happy. (Tm 4/2)
Although my classroom used the traditional equipment, the kids still showed a
great deal of enjoyment, and the majority were happy using them. Maybe
sometimes in my classroom students felt frustrated because they couldn’t control
and kept losing the ball. But, I can confidently say that I did not see big
differences in the kids’ enjoyment or happiness between the modified and
traditional groups. From my observation while managing all groups, I saw that all
students were having fun. Even the kids who used to not participate frequently in
the PE lessons were more engaged this time. (Tt 3/2)
Definitely, you can tell from students’ discipline and their enthusiasm to come
and play during the PE lessons and recesses that the students had a great time
playing tennis. Most of my students were eagerly asking me to keep PE tennis
lessons for the rest of the year. Yes, I had a lot of students complaining and were
saying it was hard to play, but they were having fun with the racquet and the ball,
I guess. (Tt 4/4)
Theme 2: Student cooperation. The PE teachers emphasized the changes in the
levels of cooperative attitudes of students in their classroom and other classrooms
recruited in this study. In other words, teachers noticed that during the PE tennis lessons,
students were engaged and collaborated with each other to succeed in learning tennis.
The PE teachers’ opinions are illustrated by the following quotes.
Students were playing and helping each other differently. This time, I could see
that the students were highly engaged and they wanted to help each other just to
keep playing. It was amazing to see that many students, almost in all training
stations, were involved and cooperated with each other. (Tm 3/1)
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It is great to see your students working in harmony. Many students were having
fun as a team, and you could see that they were running after, not just their balls,
but their friend’s balls as well. It is good to see the children were active,
especially at the end of the academic year when students are tired and ready for
summer vacation. (Tm 4/2)
Working with each other in groups or stations is always a challenge for PE
teachers. Usually, you will have some kids who don’t like to engage in some
physical activities during the stations in the PE lesson, but in this research, the
students were engaged, and the stations were working just fine. Of course, maybe
some students weren’t effective at some points, but the majority were trying their
best. I think this was because tennis is new for everybody, and they wanted to
learn it. (Tt 3/2)
Tennis is a beneficial sport to adopt in school. It teaches the students patience and
how to respect others. I saw many occasions where the students were teaching
each other. They tried to play long points, and you could see their faces and how
sometimes they were frustrated trying to keep the ball in play. (Tt 4/4)
Theme 3: Influence of the equipment on students’ enjoyment. Three out of
four PE teachers indicated that tennis seemed to be an enjoyable sport, and students in all
groups had a fun time learning and playing tennis. However, teachers also
communicated that the type of tennis equipment influenced students’ enjoyment and lead
to feelings of frustration in students in the traditional tennis equipment group moreso than
for students in the modified tennis group. The following quotes were included from the
PE teachers’ responses.
I totally support the modified tennis equipment not because my students were
using it, but because I saw the difference between playing with modified and
traditional equipment. The modified equipment really helped the kids to have fun
because the equipment was specific to them, and I saw a handful of students in the
traditional group who were frustrated sometimes and stopped playing because
they felt sad. (Tt 4/4)
Tt 3/2 noted, “It was clear that students in the traditional group needed more time
and effort to improve. Almost all of the students who came to me and were complaining
about tennis were from the traditional group.”
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Tt 4/4 commented, “Now I believe in the red ball as an effective tool. With my
very limited experience in tennis, I can easily say that students who did not enjoy tennis
much were using the yellow tennis ball.”
Research Question 2
The second research question in the current study was:
Q2 Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their perceived competence relative to players who use
traditional tennis equipment?
The results of a two-way RM ANOVA revealed that students in the modified
tennis equipment group showed greater improvements in perceived tennis competence
than did students in the traditional tennis equipment group, F (1, 1, 96) = 33.68, p < .001.
The Week 1 perceived competence mean for the modified equipment group was 4.22 (SD
= .92), and their Week 4 mean for competence was 4.67 (SD = .69), which reflected an
improvement in perceived tennis competence over time. Conversely, the Week 1
perceived competence mean for the traditional equipment group was 4.11 (SD = .91), and
their Week 4 mean for competence was 2.98 (SD = 1.25), which indicated a decline in
perceived competence over time (Figure 6).
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5 4.5 4 3.5 3 ModiMied Group 2.5 Traditional Group 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Figure 6. Group means for perceived competence. The two groups followed different trends over the four-week period. The
modified equipment group showed a steady increase in perceived competence over time
whereas the traditional equipment group demonstrated a decline in perceived competence
each week.
Table 2
Means and Standard Deviation for Perceived Competence for the Modified and
Traditional Tennis Equipment Groups
Students’ Perceived Competence
Week 1
Mean
SD
Week 2
Mean
SD
Week 3
Mean
SD
Week 4
Mean
SD
Modified
Equipment
4.22
.92
4.41
.86
4.58
.77
4.67
.69
Traditional
Equipment
4.11
.91
3.86
.92
3.54
.98
2.98
1.25
Group
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Focus groups were conducted with students in both modified and traditional
tennis equipment groups. Some differences appeared in students’ perceptions of tennis
competence between modified and traditional groups. The majority of students in the
modified tennis equipment group positively linked their ability to play tennis with the
characteristics of the tennis equipment, such as the size of the racquet and ball speed. In
the traditional tennis equipment classes, the speed of the yellow tennis ball and racquet
size and weight were mentioned specifically as issues that limited students’ perceived
ability to play tennis well. Three themes emerged from the data acquired through the
focus groups.
Students’ Focus Group Interviews:
Modified Tennis Equipment Group
Theme 1: Tennis is easy to play. These students perceived tennis as a fun sport
and as an easy sport to play. The following quotes supported this theme. One participant
stated, “Tennis is a very easy sport, I can play it, I learned it very quickly.” Another
participant indicated, “From the first shot, I knew how to hit the ball. It is easy to just hit
it in the middle of the racquet, and the ball will go quickly to the other part of the court.”
Additionally, one participant noted, “Tennis is easier than soccer. You can hit the tennis
ball further than kicking the soccer ball.”
Theme 2: Tennis competence. Students in the modified equipment group felt
competent when playing tennis. One participant stated, “I am very good at tennis. I can
play for long time without missing the ball.” Another participant explained, “I am the
best student in my group. I know how to play all shots, and my friends always want me
to play with them because I am very good at tennis.” Moreover, another student
declared, “I am very good at tennis because every time we play, I don’t miss the ball.”
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On the other hand, two students referred to the tennis equipment, specifically the tennis
racquet size, with their perceptions of playing tennis well. For instance, one student
indicated, “I can’t play the ball to my friend with the big racquet. I can play better with
the short racquet.” Another student stated, “The small tennis racquets are better than the
long ones because I feel they are easy to carry and play with.”
Theme 3: Tennis equipment. It was noteworthy that the students mentioned the
modified tennis equipment during their explanation of their process of learning tennis.
The following quotes present some students’ indication of the importance of the tennis
equipment during their discussion. A student commented, “I like the tennis racquet
because it is short and light, and I can hit the ball easily. I can hit it away from my friend
when we are playing points.” Another student affirmed, “I like the red color of the tennis
ball. I can see it very clearly when it is coming to me.” Furthermore, a student declared,
“Yes, yes, the red ball is good. I can hit it many times on my racquet and the wall.”
Focus Group Interviews: Traditional
Tennis Equipment Group
Students in the traditional equipment group noted the difficulty in playing tennis.
They mentioned many times that they could not play tennis continuously or keep the rally
going for a long time. Some students in the traditional equipment group had negative
perceptions of their competence in tennis. Three themes emerged from the focus group
data for this group.
Theme 1: Tennis is not so easy to play. The majority of students did not
perceive tennis as an easy sport to play. During the discussion, students indicated that
tennis was hard for them to play and keeping the yellow tennis ball in play was difficult
most of the time. In fact, one student stated, “I can’t play the ball for more than two
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shots. It is difficult to play the ball with my friend for more than two balls.” Another
student commented, “I don’t like playing in the wall station because I keep missing the
ball, so I cannot get the ball more than five times.” Moreover, a student declared,
“Tennis is not easy because every time I want to play with my friends, I keep missing the
ball, and my friend cannot play the ball to me. He always plays it hard and away, and I
keep running after the ball.” However, some participants indicated that tennis was easy
for them to play. For example, a participant stated, “For me, tennis is easy. I can play
the ball anywhere I want and can even play it hard, and then the student opposite to me
can’t return it.”
Theme 2: Perceived tennis competence. Students in the traditional tennis group
had conflicting perceptions about their ability to play tennis. Some students perceived
themselves as competent players. For instance, one student stated, “I feel that I am good
at tennis. It is not hard to play tennis.” Another student commented, “I am okay in
tennis. I know how to play the forehand, but the backhand is difficult. I don’t know how
to do it.” On the other hand, some participants showed less-favorable perceptions of
competence in tennis. For instance, a student noted, “I am not good at tennis. It is hard
to play the forehand and the backhand. only like to play with the racquet and the ball.”
Another student stated, “I don’t like to play at the wall station because my ball always
gets away from me, and I can’t play it straight to the wall. It is hard.” Additionally, a
student commented,
Sometimes it is difficult to correctly play and do what the coach is asking me to
do in the stations, especially the tennis court station where I had to play with my
friend for as many points as possible. It was sometimes hard to play more than
one or two times, and I had to run after the ball to bring it back and start over.
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Theme 3: Tennis equipment. Tennis equipment was mentioned frequently as a
reason for making tennis fun in the traditional equipment group. However, it was notable
that the children perceived the tennis equipment as problematic. To illustrate, a student
commented, “I didn’t like the big racquets. I like the small racquets because it was easy
to carry and play with them.” Another participant noted, “Playing in the tennis court
station was not my best station. The space is too small, and the ball always comes
quickly to me. I kept saying to my friend to play it slowly so I could return the ball.”
Another student stated, “The ball is too hard and painful, and it hurts when it hits you.
One time one of my friends hit me with the ball, and it was painful.” Moreover, a student
declared, “I feel the ball is heavy, and it hits my racquet very hard.”
In conclusion, the students in the modified group perceived themselves as more
competent in tennis when compared to the students in the traditional group. Moreover,
the majority of students in the modified tennis equipment group declared that playing
with the red tennis ball made them feel more competent in tennis. On the other hand,
some of the students in the traditional tennis equipment group negatively perceived the
tennis equipment and felt that it limited their skill development.
Individual Interviews with the Physical Education Teachers In the following section, general themes are drawn from teachers’ perceptions in
regard to their students’ tennis competence. Teachers’ identities were coded based on
their classroom number and type of tennis equipment used in their classroom.
Theme 1: Age appropriate tennis equipment. Teachers in all groups had a
preference for the modified tennis equipment, especially the red tennis ball and the
shorter racquets such as the 23- and 25-inch racquets. Teachers indicated that although
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there was great similarity in the circumstances and contexts between the modified and
traditional groups, such as the training stations and learning activities, they noticed the
differences in the students’ reactions toward the tennis equipment. For example, teachers
indicated that the children/students complained about the speed of the yellow tennis ball
and the heavy racquets in the traditional group compared with the modified equipment
group classes. The following quotes were provided by the four PE teachers. Tm 3/1
indicated that “It is clear that the modified tennis equipment, especially the red ball, was
the better choice for the students. They loved it. They kept enjoying playing with it. It is
lighter and colorful for children their age.” Tm 4/2 stated, “The students were happy
with the tennis equipment. The students were always happy about the red ball. I also
noticed that they were always asking to play with the shorter racquets because they felt
that they are lighter and easier to carry.” Other comments included:
Unfortunately, my classroom had the yellow ball. It is not good for the children
at this age. I have limited experience in tennis, but with my 17 years of
experience in teaching, I can tell that the kids were able to play and enjoy the red
ball because it was lighter and slower for them. Many of my students were
frustrated with the yellow ball and its fast speed. (Tt 3/2)
I have good students in my classroom. During my teaching I did not notice how
much the type of ball could make this huge difference in students’ ability to play.
I was engaged in both traditional and modified groups. I clearly saw the
differences in students’ performance. Students in the modified group were
improving quickly, and the length of the rally was much higher for the modified
group compared to the traditional group. The kids in the modified group were
improving faster than my students in the traditional equipment group. The ball is
really suited for the kids’ small physical abilities. Tt 4/4
Theme 2: Perceived tennis competence. The PE teachers were in general
agreement in terms of which students who participated in this study showed improvement
in their tennis competence and skills. However, it was noteworthy that three of the four
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teachers agreed that the perception of competence was higher in the modified group
equipment. The following quotes provide the teachers’ perspectives:
Yes, there is difference between the traditional and modified groups. From what I
have noticed, children in the modified group were improving faster, and their
sense of competence was also improving. Most of the time when I was talking to
them about how they feel about tennis, and their answers were almost the same—
it is easy to play and they are good at playing tennis. (Tm 3/1)
Definitely students in the modified group were getting better, in my opinion, than
the students in the traditional group. When I was assisting and managing the
training stations, the kids was always calling me to see them play. They feel that
they are good, and they want me to see them playing because they want to
impress me. (Tm 4/2)
I am not a tennis coach, and I cannot tell if the students in the modified group felt
that they are more competent than the students in the traditional group. I feel that
they both improved. At the beginning, all students did not play well and could
not control the ball. Maybe the modified equipment group was a little bit better
with playing, but I did not feel that they were super better or felt super competent
compared to the students in the traditional group. (Tt 3/2)
I think the level of competence was in favor for the students in the modified
group. They were continuously happy, and they felt good about tennis from the
first week. Some of my students, for example, told me that they like tennis, but
they don’t feel that they are good at it. I also felt that some of my students had
improved during the last week of this intervention, just at the end of it. (Tt 4/4)
Theme 3: Level of engagement in group format play. Three of the teachers
mentioned that during the training stations and recess activities, the students engaged in
different types of activities according to whether they were in the modified equipment or
traditional equipment group. The following quotes illustrate this theme:
I have noticed that the majority of my classroom students were playing more in
groups than individual activities, like the tennis court station, and playing in
groups of two or three. The majority of the students in the traditional group were
playing individually or maybe in a two group format. (Tm 3/1)
Tm 4/2 indicated, “For the modified group students, I was watching students in the gym
during the recess. It was amazing to see that many students were playing in groups, even
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students from fourth grade and third grade were playing together.” Tt 4/4 commented, “I
asked many of my students why they do not play in groups or if they do not like the
tennis court station very much, and a fair number of those students said that it is difficult
to keep the ball in play.”
Theme 4: Tennis equipment. One of goals of this study was to examine and
understand the influence of the type of tennis equipment on students’ perception of tennis
competence. The four PE teachers unanimously agreed that the modified tennis
equipment, especially the red ball and shorter racquets, were influential in contributing to
students’ perceptions of competence. Additionally, they declared that they would adopt
the red ball and shorter racquets in their future PE lessons due to the suitability of the
modified equipment in increasing children’s ability to play tennis. The following section
includes quotes from PE teachers to elucidate this theme.
With no question, I believe that the modified equipment, especially the red ball, is
the most influential tool in the tennis equipment. I even tried it, and I played well
from the first time. The ball is very good for children at this age. I saw the
differences in children’s enjoyment and ability in tennis from the beginning of
this study. (Tm 3/1)
If the decision is mine, I will adopt the modified tennis equipment in the PE
curriculum, not only to elementary, it is even useful for middle schools and
maybe high schools students. In this research, students had the same tennis and
PE tools, and the only major difference was the ball, and still I saw the
improvement in my students very quickly, especially when they did not play
tennis before. (Tm 4/2)
My students who used traditional equipment seemed like they did not feel
comfortable with the ball, and when we offered the big racquets, they preferred to
play with the shorter racquets. Some of them were trying to master tennis skills,
but it took them a long time and more effort to improve. (Tt 3/2)
If you want my opinion, we introduced the same equipment to all students, and
they have tried the same tools. However, the ball was different, and this different
factor alone made the difference in my opinion. As I mentioned before, students
in my classroom did not feel confident to continue playing with the yellow ball
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for a long time. Conversely, in the modified group, I saw them playing better and
making groups. I think the ball is making this difference. (Tt 4/4)
In sum, the PE teachers were almost all in agreement on the influence of tennis
equipment on their students’ perceptions of tennis ability. Specifically, the PE teachers
suggested that students in the modified tennis equipment group perceived that they were
more competent and had greater skill improvement relative to students in the traditional
tennis equipment group.
Research Question 3
The third research question in the current study was:
Q3 Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their intention to continue to participate relative to players
who use traditional tennis equipment?
The results of a two-way RM ANOVA revealed that students in the modified
tennis equipment group demonstrated an increase in intention to play tennis in the future
relative to students in the traditional tennis equipment group, F(1, 1, 96) = 17.73, p <
.001. The Week 1 mean for intention to play in the modified equipment group was 3.98
(SD = 1.02), and their Week 4 mean for intention was 4.16 (SD = .91), which reflected a
positive change in intention over time. Conversely, the Week 1 mean for intention for
the traditional equipment group was 4.08 (SD = .86), and their Week 4 mean for intention
declined to 3.11 (SD = 1.03). Figure 7 demonstrates the change in students’ perception of
intention to continue future tennis participation in modified and traditional tennis
equipment groups between Weeks 1 and 4 of this study.
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4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 ModiMied Group 2 Traditional Group 1.5 1 0.5 0 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Figure 7. Group means for intention to continue to play tennis. There were differences between groups over time in their intentions to participate
in tennis. The modified equipment group demonstrated a continually greater interest in
participation whereas the traditional equipment group demonstrated a week-by-week
decline in participation.
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Table 3
Means and Standard Deviation for Intention to Continue to Play Tennis for the Modified
and Traditional Tennis Equipment Groups
Students’ Intention To Continue To Play Tennis
Week 1
Mean
SD
Week 2
Mean
SD
Week 3
Mean
SD
Week 4
Mean
SD
Modified
Equipment
3.98
1.02
4.04
1.04
4.13
1.04
4.16
.91
Traditional
Equipment
4.08
.86
3.76
.82
3.67
1.73
3.11
1.03
Group
Focus Group Interviews: Modified
Equipment Group
Theme 1: Intention to continue to participate in tennis. The majority of the
third- and fourth-grade students in this group expressed the desire to continue to
participate in tennis after this study’s conclusion. Seven students communicated a high
level of enthusiasm and desire to play tennis. The other three students did not totally
reject the idea of playing tennis in the future, but they stated that if they had the chance to
play it, or if they encountered a tennis opportunity, they would engage in it, especially if
it were in the school. The following quotes are representative of this theme.
One participant stated, “I like tennis, and I want to be a tennis player. I already
got my father’s and mother’s permission to register at Kuwait club in the summer.”
Another participant indicated, “Yes, I will play tennis, and I told my classroom teacher
and the tennis coach that I want to register in the club.” Additionally, one participant
noted, “I know a lot of things about tennis. I know Djokovic is the best tennis player in
the world, and my father bought me a tennis racquet and four red balls, and he promised
to take me to one of the tennis clubs.”
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One of the three students who did not have any intention for future tennis
participation said, “I do not want to play tennis in the future, I want to be a soccer player
and play for the national team.” Another student noted, “No, I don’t want to be a tennis
player. I want to play soccer. It is my favorite sport, and all my friends play soccer.”
Also, a student commented, “Tennis is fun, but it is hard to play it. I like to play it with
my friends in school only. I do not want to play it outside the school.”
Theme 2: Tennis as an extracurricular activity. This theme is a purely cultural
theme, and it reflects students’ perceptions in regard to sports in Kuwait. Naturally, the
influences of the Kuwaiti culture and societal norms have impact on students’ perceptions
of sport participation. In the Kuwaiti society, engagement in sports is primarily for the
purpose of excelling in competition. Therefore, children with lower perceptions of their
competence in sport are unlikely to participate at the club level.
In this study, of the seven students who reflected desires to engage in tennis in the
future, only two mentioned that they would engage in future tennis activities if it was
provided by the school. For example, one student stated, “I hope school can provide
tennis for me. I do not want to play in the club. I like to play here with my friends and
have fun with them.” Moreover, a student declared, “I love tennis now more than soccer.
I only want to play it in the school because it is hard to play it in the club.” In addition,
the three students who did not feel that they wanted to participate in tennis in the future
also mentioned that they would possibly engage in tennis only if it was in the school. For
instance, one said, “I don’t think I want to play tennis. If I play it, I want to play it in the
PE lessons only.” A student commented, “To play tennis outside the school is very hard.
Maybe I will play it in the school, but in the club, it is not fun.” This theme might not
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directly reflect students’ perception in regard to their intention to continue to play tennis
in the future, but it will provide a beneficial venue to understand one of many possible
hindrances that prevent students from engaging in tennis or other sports in Kuwait.
Focus Group Interviews: Traditional
Equipment Group
Theme 1: Intention to continue to participate in tennis. Fewer students in the
traditional tennis equipment group expressed a desire to play tennis in the future. Only
three students indicated that they might, or would, seek future tennis participation. For
example, one student commented, “Yes, I want to play tennis, and I can’t go to the club
now, but I will go in the summer.” Another said, “Tennis is a good game, and I want to
play it. I am now watching tennis on the TV and trying to learn it.” Another student
affirmed, “I like tennis—it is fun, and me and my friend will play it together in the club.”
It is was interesting that some students who did not have intentions to continue in
tennis justified the reason for not pursuing tennis as due to their low ability, and they
considered tennis a difficult sport to play. Representative quotes from the five students
who did not have intentions to continue their participation in tennis included statements
such as, “I do not want to play tennis—it is not easy to play it.” Another student stated,
“No, I do not think I am good at tennis, I play soccer better, and I want to be a soccer
player when I grow up.” A third student declared, “No, I can’t play it well. I want to be
a soccer player.”
Theme 2: Tennis as an extracurricular activity. Similar to the students in the
modified group, two students in the traditional group affirmed that they wanted to
participate in school-based tennis activities only. For example, one student stated, “Yes,
I will play tennis, but in the school only. Next year, if they will let us play it in the PE
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gym during recess, I will come every day to play it.” Along that the same line, another
student noted, “I asked my teacher if she could let us play tennis next year. I want to play
it in the school.”
Interviews with the Physical
Education Teachers
Teachers’ perceptions were also obtained in regard to the students’ intentions to
continue to participate in tennis. The four PE teachers were interviewed and asked to
provide their opinions with respect to students’ intentions to continue to participate in
tennis based on their dialogue with their students.
Based on the discussion between students and their teachers, the four PE teachers’
responses were generally in agreement on three reasons why students in the modified
tennis group had greater intention to continue to play tennis. The teachers commented
that students in the modified equipment class had greater interest in tennis and were more
likely to want to play tennis during the second recess. In addition, parents of students in
the modified equipment classes inquired more frequently about tennis, which suggested
that the students in the modified equipment group discussed tennis at home.
Theme 1: Student interest. Teachers indicated that more students from the
modified group were favorable about continuing in tennis. For instance, Tm 3/1 stated,
“Almost all students from the modified group, of course not all students, but the majority,
said ‘yes’ we want to play tennis after these PE tennis lessons when I asked them if they
would like to play tennis in the future.” In contrast, Tt 4/4 commented, “For example, I
have noticed that students in my classroom had inconsistent responses toward their future
tennis participation. Throughout the intervention, their opinion kept changing, and they
might even end up with a lower desire to continue in tennis for some of them.”
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Theme 2: Students’ engagement. The PE teachers noticed the number of
students who came to the PE gym and reported good attendance for both groups. Tm 3/2
noted, “
Students in both groups constantly wanted to come to play tennis, even in the
second recess period. But, my students, they kept asking to come at every
possible opportunity, even when they had a substitute teacher in another subject,
they kept coming and wanted to play in the gym.
Tt 4/2 declared,
I can tell, I felt the kids really enjoyed tennis and wanted to keep coming and play
it every single time. In my classroom, I saw a high level of enjoyment and
intention to come and play it, but maybe at the end, they felt a little bit bored.
Overall, and through the intervention, I am confident that they had a great
experience.
Theme 3: Parents’ inquiries. The parental inquiry theme was a bit surprising
because it was not common for parents to inquire about school subjects, especially
physical education. To illustrate, Tm 3/1 stated, “During my 17 years of teaching
experience, I haven’t seen this many parent inquiries about a PE unit. The dozen parents
I talked to kept saying that their kids kept asking them to buy tennis racquets and red
balls, but they didn’t know what they should buy.” Moreover, Tt 3/2 noted,
Students were transferring their passion toward tennis into their homes. Parents
usually don’t come to school too often, and especially for PE. It was nice to see
this enthusiasm toward tennis. Although I didn’t have many parents for my
classroom, I went a couple times to meet with parents, but it was nice to see these
parental inquiries about PE.
In conclusion, teachers perceived that students in the modified tennis equipment group
had greater intention to continue to play tennis in the future.
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Research Question 4
The fourth research question in the study was:
Q4 Do young tennis players who use modified tennis equipment differ
significantly in their ability to execute forehand and backhand
groundstrokes relative to players who use traditional tennis equipment?
The final research question was examined through observational data. The two
experienced tennis coaches who participated in this study evaluated the performance of
20 students who were randomly selected. Five students were selected from each of the
four classrooms and were evaluated on their skill performance. Each student’s
performance was evaluated twice. The first performance evaluation (pre-test) took place
during the first day of the intervention. The second performance evaluation (post-test)
took place on the last day of intervention. The pre-test and the post-test evaluation
processes followed the same procedures. The pre-test and post-test included two
forehand trials, each consisting of two backhand and two forehand strokes. The sum of
the scores for the two trials represented their overall score.
The nonparametric Mann-Whitney test was utilized to answer this research
question. This test was used because the sample size was small, and the data did not
necessarily meet the normality assumption. The Mann-Whitney test indicated that there
were statistically significant differences between groups in forehand stroke improvement
from pre-test to post-test, U = 13.50, p < .01. The mean score of 14.15 for the modified
tennis equipment group exceeded the mean of 6.85 for the traditional equipment group.
Therefore, students in the modified tennis equipment group improved on the forehand
stroke more than the traditional equipment group over the course of four weeks of tennis
intervention.
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The groups were also tested on improvement on the backhand stroke, and the
Mann-Whitney test revealed a significant difference between the groups, U = 20.50, p <
.05. The mean score of 13.45 for the modified tennis equipment group exceeded the
mean of 7.55 for the traditional equipment group. This difference also favored the
modified tennis equipment group.
It is worth mentioning that the number of students who participated in forehand
and backhand trials was very small and that the findings may not be representative of the
sample as a whole. This portion of the study relied upon volunteers and not all students
had the opportunity to volunteer given the four-week nature of the intervention.
Additional data were also collected and information was collected regarding
students’ preferred racquet size. The data for this specific observational data were
collected by counting the number of racquets by size that students used each recess.
Every time students visited the optional recess tennis activity, they found that all racquets
were placed in a large basket (basket A) and the students selected the racquet size that
they felt comfortable using. At the end of the recess, students were asked to return their
racquets to another basket (basket B) close to the PE gym exit. Following each recess
period, the additional data were counted, and the sum of all 12 tennis recess activities
were calculated to attain the total numbers and percentages.
Data on students’ attendance of the optional tennis opportunities were collected
by asking students to sign in on an the attendance sheet in the gym. The findings
indicated that there were greater numbers of visits by students from the modified tennis
equipment group (n = 482) compared to students from the traditional tennis equipment
group (n = 430). Students were also provided with different sizes of tennis racquets to
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use during recess optional tennis activities. Students had free choice in utilizing the
racquet size that they preferred. The students’ racquet preferences were determined by
counting the frequency with which they used each size of racquet. The findings indicated
that the majority of students in both modified and traditional groups preferred the 23” and
25” size racquets. To illustrate, students in the modified tennis equipment group used
23”, 25”, and 26” racquets 194, 240, and 89 times, respectively, during the recess
activities. Students in the traditional tennis group utilized 23”, 25”, and 26”racquet size
224 times, 281 times, and 104 times, respectively, when participating in the recess tennis
activities.
Moreover, the data were compared across groups for individual and group play.
Individual or group play should be an indicator of perceived competence in tennis
because engaging in group tennis play such as playing a tennis rally involves a greater
degree of challenge than engaging in some individual activities, such as bouncing the ball
on the racquet. The findings indicated that students from the modified tennis equipment
group engaged in in-group play 47% of the time (227 times) and in individual play 88%
of the time (424 times) during the recess tennis activities. On the other hand, students
from the traditional tennis equipment group engaged in group play tennis activities only
29% of the time (124 times) and engaged in individual play of tennis 63% of the time
(273 times).
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CHAPTER V
DISCUSSION
Numerous factors can affect whether a young person chooses to become involved
in sport and subsequently decides whether to maintain or discontinue their involvement.
Developmental considerations are vitally important to children’s initial sport
involvement, and their continuation in sport and youth sport needs to be designed in ways
that are developmentally appropriate to maximize participation and to increase the
benefits of involvement. Consequently, children’s sport should be designed differently
than adult sports to take into account these physical, cognitive, social, and psychological
differences.
A significant challenge faced by children when they begin participation in any
sport is that they don’t have fully developed cognitive abilities, such as working memory,
which can make it difficult for them to learn new sport skills such as the forehand and
backhand strokes in tennis. For example, learning to strike the ball effectively in tennis
involves adjusting to the bounce of the ball such that it is at an optimum height, which is
a reflection of working memory. Adjusting sports equipment and environments to
correspond with children’s physical capacities and cognitive ability should increase
children’s interest and enjoyment in any sport and should increase the rate at which they
learn skills. Therefore, to augment learning new motor skills and skill acquisition in
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children, participatory environments should be planned to accommodate children’s
developing physical, psychological, social, and cognitive capacities.
In addition to these developmental considerations, current theory and knowledge
on motivation should be incorporated into the design of sport experiences of children and
adolescents to maximize their interest and enjoyment and the quality of their
participation. Competence Motivational Theory (CMT) (Harter, 1978, 1981) has been an
important theoretical model used in youth sport because the theory itself was developed
to explain the developmental need for competence and was intended to address the ways
in which the development of perceived competence occurs from childhood through
adulthood. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000)
is also an important and widely used current motivational theory that can help to structure
many aspects of the youth sport experience. From a SDT perspective, the psychological
needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness must be nurtured to foster intrinsic
motivation and sustained interest and involvement in any activity (Deci & Ryan, 2008).
Across both theories, perceived competence is considered to be an essential precursor to
motivation, and this study was designed with a focus on enhancing children’s perceptions
of competence to stimulate their motivation. In sum, youth sport programs should be
designed to assist children and youth to grow and develop psychologically, physically,
and socially through the satisfaction of their need to feel competent.
There is a movement in the tennis community to utilize modified tennis
equipment at younger ages so that children have the opportunity to play with
developmentally appropriate equipment to facilitate their feelings of competence and
their enjoyment of the sport. The International Tennis Federation (ITF), the United
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States Tennis Association (USTA), and other organizations have taken the lead in making
these modifications. The desire to modify traditional tennis equipment to enhance youth
interest and enjoyment of the sport has been based on logic rather than research, however,
as there is not yet an existing body of research that has been conducted to examine the
effectiveness of equipment modifications. Therefore, the purpose of this mixed-method
study was to attempt to understand the effectiveness of learning tennis with modified,
developmentally appropriate equipment on children’s perceptions of enjoyment,
competence, and intention to continue participation in the State of Kuwait.
Findings Related to Research Questions
The first research question addressed whether children who use modified tennis
equipment differ in their level of enjoyment from players who use traditional tennis
equipment. The results indicated that students in the modified tennis equipment group
showed significantly greater enjoyment of tennis over time than did the students in the
traditional equipment group. The focus group results were consistent with these findings,
as students in the modified tennis equipment group clearly expressed that that they felt
that tennis was an enjoyable sport to play. Conversely, students in the traditional tennis
equipment group communicated lesser enjoyment and stated that there were some
considerations that minimized their interest in playing tennis, such as the difficulty in
playing longer tennis rallies. Interviews with the PE teachers provided further support for
this difference between groups. The PE teachers explained that students in the modified
tennis equipment group had consistently higher levels of tennis enjoyment throughout the
intervention compared to their peers in the traditional tennis equipment group. The
observational findings indicated that students in the modified equipment group attended
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the open recess tennis opportunities more frequently than did students in the traditional
tennis equipment group. Thus, in relation to the first research question, there was a
relationship found between type of tennis equipment and students’ tennis enjoyment.
Students in the modified equipment group experienced greater enjoyment over the course
of the study than did students in the traditional equipment group.
From the findings it was salient that students level of tennis enjoyment in the
modified tennis equipment group started to increase over the course of this study’s 4week intervention. The quantitative and qualitative results were consistent in regard to
the improvement of children’s level of tennis enjoyment in the modified equipment group
and reduction in tennis enjoyment was also notable for students in the traditional
equipment group. Students’ sense of competence and their ability to play tennis and with
friends contributed to tennis enjoyment for students in the modified equipment group
during this study intervention. Conversely, students in the traditional tennis equipment
group struggled to maintain their tennis enjoyment over time.
The intention of the second research question was to discover whether differences
in perceived tennis competence would appear between players using the modified and
traditional tennis equipment. The findings indicated that students’ perceived competence
improved significantly more in the modified tennis equipment group than in the
traditional equipment group. The results from the student focus groups were consistent
with these findings, as students in the modified tennis group expressed that they
perceived tennis to be an easier sport to play than did the students in the traditional
equipment group. Furthermore, the students in the modified equipment group perceived
themselves to be more competent in mastering the forehand and backhand strokes. On
102
the other hand, students in the traditional tennis equipment group considered tennis to be
a difficult sport to play and felt that they needed more effort to master the necessary
tennis skills. In the interviews with the PE teachers, the teachers communicated strong
support for the use of the modified tennis equipment to enhance children’s competence.
Observational findings indicated that students in the modified tennis equipment groups
engaged in more group play tennis activities, which would reflect a higher level of
perceived competence in these students than in students who preferred to play only
individual tennis activities. In relation to the second research question, the modified
tennis equipment was found to be beneficial in facilitating children’s perceived tennis
competence.
The difference between modified and traditional equipment groups in children’s
perception of competence was very apparent. There was a continuous decline in
children’s perceived ability in the traditional equipment group to play tennis over time.
To the contrary, children’s perception of tennis competence in the modified equipment
group consistently improved over time.
The third research question addressed whether children who used the modified
tennis equipment differed significantly in their intention to continue to participate in the
sport relative to children who used the traditional tennis equipment. The quantitative
findings indicated that the modified tennis equipment group demonstrated significantly
greater intention to continue to play tennis than their peers in the traditional equipment
group, and the focus group findings were consistent with this conclusion as well.
Interviews with the PE teachers further corroborated this difference between groups. The
PE teachers explained that students in the modified tennis equipment groups had
103
consistently requested more tennis participation opportunities and were in favor of
greater inclusion of tennis in the PE curriculum for the following year. Conversely, their
peers in the traditional tennis equipment groups demonstrated a reduced interest in tennis
involvement over the four weeks of the study. In relation to the third research question,
use of the modified tennis equipment contributed to students’ intentions to continue
tennis participation.
Similar to the findings for the first two research questions, these results reflected a
steady decline in students’ intention to continue to play tennis in the traditional
equipment group. Students’ intention to continue to participate in tennis was also
influenced by children’s perceptions of competence, children’s perception of enjoyment,
and cultural and societal norms and practices in Kuwait. Students in both modified and
traditional tennis equipment groups linked their future intention to participate in tennis
with their perception of tennis enjoyment and competence. In addition, students also
connected their desire to pursue future tennis participation opportunity to their culture.
The cultural norm in Kuwait in regard to official sport clubs is to emphasize competition
over fun. For example, students in both modified and traditional equipment groups had
great interest in tennis as an extracurricular or PE activity in the school setting only. This
cultural norm had impacted students’ intention to continue to participate in tennis after
this study intervention.
The fourth research question addressed whether children who used modified
tennis equipment differed significantly in their ability to execute forehand and backhand
groundstrokes relative to players who used traditional tennis equipment. The logic for
using the shorter racquets and the low-compression tennis balls was that the racquet size
104
better corresponds with children’s height and limb length and enables them to engage in a
less-complex movement pattern than would be the case with the longer racquets. Play
with the lower-compression balls allows children more time to prepare to play the ball.
Each of these considerations is consistent with children’s physical and cognitive
developmental capacities, and the modified tennis equipment is, thus, considered to be
“developmentally appropriate.” The results indicated that students in the modified tennis
equipment group showed significantly greater improvement in tennis forehand and
backhand stroke execution than did students in the traditional equipment group. Because
they played with the lower-compression balls, the students in the modified tennis groups
had more time to execute the forehand and backhand strokes compared with students in
the traditional tennis equipment group, which helped in learning appropriate technique.
These results were important because they were representative of specific benefits of the
modified tennis equipment on skills that are essential to successfully playing tennis.
However, as mentioned in the results section, the number of students who participated in
forehand and backhand trials was relatively small and the findings may not be
representative of the sample as a whole.
From the standpoint of motivational theory, the findings from this study
corresponded with expectations from both CMT and SDT. In this regard, utilization of
the modified tennis equipment was associated with gains in perceived competence for
these participants. Furthermore, satisfaction of children’s need to feel competent was
related to an increased level of motivation. The modified tennis equipment enabled
children to learn more quickly learn and to execute tennis skills, which was consistent
with expectations based upon developmental considerations. One of the additional, and
105
unanticipated, benefits of the use of the modified tennis equipment was that the use of
this equipment enabled children to participate more with their friends. The interview,
focus group, and observational data indicated that students in the modified tennis
equipment group participated more in group play with their fellow students, which
logically would contribute to their enjoyment and interest in continuing to play tennis.
From an SDT standpoint, use of the modified equipment is potentially beneficial in
contributing to children’s sense of relatedness because feeling competent enables children
to participate in more dynamic, group play sport activities.
It is not surprising that the modified tennis equipment had a positive impact on
children’s skill performance because it was designed and introduced to the tennis
community as age-appropriate tennis equipment. The modified tennis equipment,
especially the modified tennis ball (low-compression balls), enables children to engage in
tennis using tennis equipment that corresponds with their physical and cognitive abilities.
There has been a need expressed by individuals within the tennis community for
researchers to empirically investigate the potential benefits of modified equipment
(Kachel et al., 2015), and the purpose of this study was to pursue this line of research
through a controlled intervention.
Summary and Future Directions
The findings from this study are consistent with developmental and motivational
perspectives applied to the design of youth sport programming. The findings are also
consistent with the arguments advanced by the International Tennis Federation and the
United States Tennis Association that developmentally appropriate tennis equipment
would be beneficial in helping young people enjoy, and feel competent in, the sport of
106
tennis which should contribute to their desire to continue participation in the sport. These
tennis organizations have also argued that modified equipment should be beneficial for
youth in developing the essential skills in tennis, and the results from this study indicated
that greater skill development occurred when the modified tennis equipment was utilized.
This study provides support for the belief that youth sport programs should be
designed in ways that are consistent with our knowledge about youth development and
motivation. It is proposed that developmental and motivational considerations should
influence the design of all youth sport programs and that similar modifications could
increase levels of enjoyment while reducing attrition from some other popular children’s
sports. Thus, although this study was designed to address only tennis, it is proposed that
the implications of these findings should extend beyond tennis to other youth sports.
The knowledge base supports the idea that enjoyment is an important contributor
to tennis participation (Crane, & Temple, 2015). The modified tennis equipment
contributed to greater enjoyment for children and should contribute to future tennis
participation. Therefore, it is essential that national and international tennis organizations
utilize the modified tennis equipment and combine this equipment with appropriate
coaching practices that are consistent with motivational theory in order to contribute to
positive and age-appropriate tennis experiences for young tennis players. This approach
will provide the ideal solution to the struggle of sustaining interest in young tennis
players for continued tennis participation (International Tennis Federation, 2015).
There were some unique culturally specific considerations that also emerged in
this study. In Kuwait, there is a cultural expectation that the official sport clubs are
appropriate only for individuals who are talented and want to continue a sport at a high
107
competitive level. The students who expressed enjoyment in tennis in this study
indicated that they had the desire to continue their participation in the sport, but had a
strong preference for playing only at schools, rather than clubs. Thus, the modified
tennis equipment had a positive effect on children’s tennis interest, but this interest was
limited to participating in a school environment that had a stronger orientation toward
learning than toward competition.
The current study was based on motivational theory, but there are additional ways
in which theoretical considerations can be included in the design of youth sport programs.
The present study was grounded in SDT, and there was a major emphasis on developing
perceived competence as a means of stimulating intrinsic motivation to play tennis.
However, more could be done to stimulate autonomy and relatedness, as each could
further contribute to intrinsic motivation. Autonomy could be stimulated by allowing
children to have greater choice in the learning process by being able to select equipment
and challenges that they prefer. Relatedness could be promoted by encouraging more
frequent group interaction and collaboration with others. Thus, there are additional future
directions linked to motivational theory that could be beneficial to beginners and young
athletes in general.
Tennis federations worldwide have encouraged the adoption of modified tennis
equipment to increase the motivation, skill development, and retention of young people in
the sport. A systematic and comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the
modified tennis equipment is needed to better understand the outcomes of these
modifications. This study represented a first step in developing knowledge about
developmentally appropriate equipment modifications in the sport of tennis. However,
108
much remains to be known about how to design sport for children and youth to be
developmentally appropriate so that we may help youth to develop psychologically,
socially, and physically through sport.
109
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Yli-Piipari, S., Watt, A., Jaakkola, T., Liukkonen, J., & Nurmi, J-E. (2009). Relationships
between physical education students’ motivational profiles, enjoyment, state
anxiety, and self-reported physical activity. Journal of Sports Science and
Medicine, 8, 327-336.
Zou, J., Liu, Q., & Yang, Z. (2012). Development of a Moodle course for
schoolchildren’s table tennis learning based on competence motivation theory: Its
effectiveness in comparison to traditional training method. Computers and
Education, 59(2), 294-303.
137
APPENDIX A
SITUATIONAL QUESTIONNAIRE
138
How Do You Feel NOW?
Chose one face from the provided faces for each question.
To answer each question you can put (✓) in the box under the best face that reflect you
feelings.
Right now I feel that…….. 1. I am having fun playing tennis 2. I would like to play tennis outside of PE lessons 3. Do you feel you are good in tennis 4. I like tennis because it is fun 5. I can be a good tennis player 6. Tennis is an enjoyable sport 7. I would like to be a tennis player 8. My tennis forehand and backhand are good 9. I would like to play tennis in every PE lesson? 139
APPENDIX B
FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW GUIDELINES
140
Focus Group Interview
The purpose is to encourage students to talk about their tennis experience and tennis
equipment.
Instructions provided by the interviewer:
The PE teachers are starting a new physical education program in which we are going to
include tennis as a primary sport in the elementary curriculum. Could you tell me your
opinion and evaluate the tennis program for us? Your opinion is important for us to
understand if tennis and tennis equipment is beneficial for you. There are no right or
wrong answer but just what you think and how you felt during these tennis lessons.
Therefore, feel free to say anything and respond to the questions with respect for your
friends in the discussion group. I will give you the chance to speak so do not need to
interrupt your friends. It is fine to agree or disagree with your friends and remember it is
not a test.
Interview questions:
1. Can you tell me how you felt about learning tennis?
2. In your opinion, what were the best parts of learning tennis? Why and give
example if you can?
3. In your opinion, what were the parts that you did not like as much?
4. Do you think the tennis lessons in this program were enjoyable or boring?
Why and give example if you can?
5. Do you think the tennis lessons in this program helped you to learn tennis? If
yes or no, what were the things made you say this?
6. Do you feel the tennis equipment used in this program helped you in
improving your forehand and backhand? How?
141
7. What activity and equipment (racquet and/or ball) helped you to play the most
rally with your friends and/or with wall? Could you tell me why and give me
examples?
8. In your opinion, what we can do as PE teachers to improve this program?
Could you give example? 142
APPENDIX C
TENNIS AUSTALIA’S FUNDAMENTAL
TECHNIQUE CHECKLIST
143
Tennis Australia’s Fundamental Technique Checklist
The technical points outlined below have been created by expert tennis coaches
and are considered the fundamentals of performing tennis strokes.
Forehand
Descriptions of the six technical points for the forehand and Technical Point Description:
1. Grip: Eastern forehand grip to a semi western forehand grip.
2. Circular Swing: A circular-like motion in the backswing with the racquet.
3. Low-to-high Swing Racquet: Swung from low to high during the forward swing, but
with an arc that was more horizontal than vertical.
4. Step Forward Step: Forward into the shot, with the opposite leg to the hitting hand.
5. Impact Ball: Struck in front and to the side of the body.
6. Follow-through: Follow-through considered a natural extension of the swing (i.e.,
extension and flexion of the elbow).
Backhand
Descriptions of the six technical points for the backhand and Technical Point Description:
1. Grip Single-handed Grip = Eastern backhand grip.
- Double-handed Grip: Bottom hand on grip (right hand is the bottom hand for righthand players) should be an Eastern backhand grip to a continental grip.
2. Circular Swing: A circular-like motion in the backswing with the racquet.
3. Low-to-high Swing: Racquet swung from low to high during the forward swing, but
with an arc that was more horizontal than vertical.
4. Step Forward Step: Forward into the shot, with the opposite leg to the hitting hand.
5. Impact Ball: Struck in front and to the side of the body.
6. Follow-through: Follow-through considered a natural extension of the swing (i.e.,
extension and flexion of the elbow).
* Children could use either a one-handed or a two-handed grip.
144
APPENDIX D
TEACHER INTERVIEW GUIDELINES
145
Teacher Interview
Instructions: Please respond to these questions based on your opinion from what you
have seen and from what the participants in this study have shared with you. Your
responses could include your ideas, thoughts, observations, and opinions. Also, you can
share what students in your classroom or other students from other classroom participated
in this study provided in terms of their opinions, suggestions, and thoughts.
Interview questions:
1. How did students react in your classroom toward integrating tennis in the PE
lessons? Explain.
2. Could you explain what were the major changes and differences in your
students’ participation practices? Could you please provide examples?
3. Do you think students in your classroom enjoyed playing tennis throughout
the intervention? Could you explain?
4. At the end of the intervention, do you think students in your classroom started
to feel bored and did not feel that tennis is enjoyable? Explain.
5. Do you think students in your classroom felt competent in tennis throughout
the intervention? Could you explain?
6. Did students in your classroom share with you the difficulties they had and
their efforts during playing tennis? Could you share some examples?
7. Did you hear or chat with students in your classroom about their potential
participation in tennis? Could you provide some examples?
146
8. Could you make comparisons between students’ enjoyment, perception of
competence, and intention to continue to play tennis in the future between the
groups with modified and traditional tennis equipment?
9.
From your participation in this study, could you let me know what type of
tennis equipment (modified or traditional) you will adopt in your curriculum if
you had the chance to choose? Why?
147
APPENDIX E
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD
CONSENT FORM—PARENTS
148
Informed Consent (Parents) for Participation in Research
Project Title: Examining the Influence of Modified Tennis Equipment on Young Players’
Enjoyment, Perceived Competence, and Intention to Participate in Tennis in the State of
Kuwait
Researcher: Abdullah Akbar ([email protected])
Research Advisor: Dr. Robert Brustad ([email protected])
I am a researcher in Social Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity at The University of
Northern Colorado in the United States of America, and I am in the process of conducting a
research project that seeks to attain a better understanding of the influence of modified tennis
equipment on children. More specifically, I am looking to explore and compare the influence of
modified tennis equipment on elementary students’ tennis enjoyment, perception of competence
in tennis, and intention for future participation in tennis. A comparison between the influence of
the traditional and modified tennis on children’s perception toward tennis will be examined
through different ways, such as responding to a child version of a self-report situational
questionnaire, focus group interview, and videotaping and analyzing children's performance.
If you agree to give your child the permission to participate in this project study, a survey will be
administered four times (once a week) with questions regarding your child’s perception toward
his ability to play tennis, his tennis enjoyment, and his feeling toward participating in tennis in the
future. The questionnaires are expected to take approximately 10 minutes to complete, and your
child’s physical education teacher will be responsible to manage the survey administration
process. However, this study has two additional sections where the children will be interviewed in
group setting with other four students (two times during the intervention) from his classroom to
attain further understanding of children’s perception toward tennis in general while utilizing
different tennis equipment. This part of the study is optional and signing this form will not
automatically involve your child in this section. If you wish your child to participate in the focus
group part of the study you have to check the provided box below. The last part of this study is
also optional and needs your approval to enable your child to participate. In the third part, only
twenty students will be videotaped and analyzed using Dartfish software. This analysis will not
require any threatening or devices that could cause any threat to your child. Again, this part of the
study is optional and signing this form will not automatically involve your child in this section.
Therefore, if you wish your child to participate in the performance analysis part of the study you
have to check the provided box below.
For research purposes, the children will not be informed that they are participating in research
intervention. Instead, the children will be informed this intervention is part of their regular PE
curriculum. The only reason for this intentional step is to accurately measure children’s
perception toward tennis experience. Informing children about the actual nature of this study
might influence their perception and could lead to inaccurate findings. Therefore, I highly
149
recommend that you do not share this study goal and intentions to your child. If you feel that you
need to inform your child about the study we recommend that none of the measured variables,
such as tennis enjoyment, perception of competence, and intention to participate in tennis in the
future, should be explained to the child to avoid misleading results.
Identifying information will not be solicited on the survey and as such, confidentiality will be
preserved for all participants. Additionally, all participants will be assigned a code when
analyzing the data to enhance their confidentiality. None of the participants’ identity will not be
shared with any institution including their school principals.
There are limited risks to your child when participating in this research. His identity will be
protected and no identifying information will be used in any professional report of this study.
Aggregate results from group findings will appear in the final report. All participants will be
numerically identified and assigned to enhance the participant’s confidentiality when information
from the survey is retained. All data and artifacts collected from this research will be locked in
the office of the researcher or password protected if in digital format.
Your child participation is voluntary. Your child will be verbally asked if he approve and wish to
participate in this study. Your child could refuse to participate in this research and there is no
obligation to complete this study, if you decided to withdraw your child after he begins
participation any time. Your decision will be fully respected. By participating in the survey, you
are providing consent to use your child responses.
If you have any concerns about your selection or treatment as a research participant, please
contact Office of Sponsored Programs, Kepner Hall, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley,
Colorado, USA, 80639; 1-970-351-2161.
Yours sincerely,
Researchers: Researcher: Abdullah Akbar ([email protected])
Dr. Robert Brustad ([email protected])
Signiture:………………………………………
I would like my child to participate in this study Self-­‐report questionnaire section Focus group interview section Video taping analysis section Please check on the boxes that you would like your child to participate in during this study you can choose 1 or 2 or all study’s sections 150
APPENDIX F
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD
CONSENT FORM—COACHES
151
CONSENT FORM FOR HUMAN PARTICIPANTS IN RESEARCH Coaches Consent Form Project Title: Examining the Influence of Modified Tennis Equipment on Young
Players’ Enjoyment, Perceived Competence, and Intention to Participate in Tennis
in the State of Kuwait
Researcher: Abdullah Akbar ([email protected]).
Research Advisor: Dr. Robert Brustad ([email protected]). Phone number: 970351-1737
I am a student of Sport and exercise science at the University of Northern Colorado in the
USA. I wanted to conduct a research to understand how children use tennis equipment
and their enjoyment, competence and intention to continue participation in tennis
If you agree to our request to participate and assist in this project study; your valuable
experience and effort is needed in a four weeks intervention. During these four weeks,
you will be friendly asked to attend in one of the Al-Asma educational district (Omar Ibn
Al-Aas elementary school). You will participate in this research as a one of the two
primary coaches to introduce tennis to third and fourth grades students during the
physical education lessons. Each day your attendance in the physical education gym is
needed for 4 hours from Sunday through Thursday and for four weeks.
Your expertise is tremendously needed in two parts of this study. First, introducing tennis
to the students during the PE lessons. Second, analyzing video taping of twenty student’s
forehand and backhand performance (at the beginning and at the end of the intervention).
Identifying information will not be solicited and as such, confidentiality will be preserved
for all participants and coaches. Additionally, all participants including coaches in this
study will be assigned a code when analyzing the data to enhance their confidentiality.
None of the participants’ identity will not be shared with any institution including you
tennis club’s administrator and/or head coach.
There is no risk to you when participating in this research other then those would
encounter in any normal tennis experience. Your identity will be protected and no
identifying information will be used in any professional report of this study. Aggregate
results from group findings will appear in the final report. All participants including
coaches will be numerically identified and assigned to enhance the participant’s
152
confidentiality when information from the intervention is retained. All data and artifacts
collected from this research will be locked in the office of the researcher or password
protected if in digital format. All recordings will be erased three-years after the study.
Participation is voluntary. You may decide not to participate in this study and if you
begin participation you may still decide to stop and withdraw at any time. Your decision
will be respected and will not result in loss of benefits to which you are otherwise
entitled. Having read the above and having had an opportunity to ask any questions,
please sign below if you would like to participate in this research. A copy of this form
will be given to you to retain for future reference. If you have any concerns about your
selection or treatment as a research participant, please contact Sherry May, IRB
Administrator, Office of Sponsored Programs, 25 Kepner Hall, University of Northern
Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639; 970-351-1910.
Yours sincerely,
Researchers: Abdullah Akbar ([email protected]). Phone number: 970-6915640
Dr. Robert Brustad ([email protected]). Phone number: 970-351-1737
Signature:………………………………………
153
APPENDIX G
TRANSLATED QUESTIONNAIRE
AND INTERVIEWS QUESTIONS
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‫ﻤﻣﺎ ﻫﮬﮪھﻮﻭو ﺸﺷﻌﻮﻭوﺭرﻚﻙك ﻓﻲ ﻫﮬﮪھﺬﺫذﻩه ﺍاﻟﻠﺤﺣﻈﻇﻆﻅظﺔ؟‬
‫ﺇإﺨﺧﺘﺮ ﺇإﺠﺟﺎﺒﺑﺔ ﻮﻭوﺍاﺤﺣﺪﺩدﺓة ﻓﻘﻄﻃﻂﻁط‬
‫ﻀﺿﻊ ﻋﻼﻤﻣﺔ ﺼﺻﺢ ) ‪ ( /‬ﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻝل ﻛﻝل ﺴﺳﺆﺅؤﺍاﻝل ﻮﻭو ﺗﺤﺣﺖﺕت ﺃأﺤﺣﺪﺩد ﺍاﻟﻮﻭوﺠﺟﻪ ﺍاﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﻌﺒﺑﺮ ﻋﻦﻥن ﺍاﺤﺣﺴﺳﺎﺴﺳﻚﻙك‬
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‫‪ 1.‬ﺃأﻨﻧﺎ ﻤﻣﺴﺳﺘﻤﻣﺘﻊ‬
‫ﺒﺑﻠﻌﺐﺏب ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‬
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‫‪ 2.‬ﺃأﻮﻭوﺪﺩد ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﻌﺐﺏب‬
‫ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺨﺧﺎﺭرﺝج‬
‫ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﺪﺩدﺭرﺴﺳﺔ‬
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‫‪ 3.‬ﺇإﻨﻧﺎ ﺃأﺸﺷﻌﺮ ﺒﺑﺄﻨﻧﻲ‬
‫ﺠﺟﻴﺪﺩد ﻓﻲ ﻟﻌﺐﺏب ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‬
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‫‪ 4.‬ﺇإﻨﻧﺎ ﺃأﺤﺣﺐﺏب ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‬
‫ﻷﻨﻧﻬﮭﮫﺎ ﻤﻣﺴﺳﻠﻴﺔ‬
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‫‪ 5.‬ﺃأﺤﺣﺲﺱس ﺒﺑﺄﻨﻧﻲ‬
‫ﺴﺳﻮﻭوﻒﻑف ﺃأﻛﻮﻭوﻦﻥن ﻻﻋﺐﺏب‬
‫ﺗﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺠﺟﻴﺪﺩد‬
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‫‪ 6.‬ﺗﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻟﻌﺒﺑﺔ ﻤﻣﻤﻣﺘﻌﺔ‬
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‫‪ 7.‬ﺃأﻋﺘﻘﺪﺩد ﺒﺑﺄﻨﻧﻲ ﺃأﻮﻭوﺪﺩد‬
‫ﺒﺑﺄﻦﻥن ﺃأﻛﻮﻭوﻦﻥن ﻻﻋﺐﺏب‬
‫ﺗﻨﻧﺲﺱس‬
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‫‪ 8.‬ﺃأﻋﺘﻘﺪﺩد ﺒﺑﺄﻨﻧﻲ‬
‫ﺃأﻋﺮﻒﻑف ﻛﻴﻒﻑف ﺃأﻟﻌﺐﺏب‬
‫ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‬
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‫‪ 9.‬ﺃأﻮﻭوﺪﺩد ﻟﻌﺐﺏب ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‬
‫ﻛﻝل ﺤﺣﺼﺻﺔ ﺒﺑﺪﺩدﻨﻧﻴﺔ‬
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‫ﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ ﻓﻲ ﻤﻣﺠﺟﻤﻣﻮﻭوﻋﺎﺖﺕت‬
‫ﺍاﻟﻬﮭﮫﺪﺩدﻒﻑف ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ ﻫﮬﮪھﻮﻭو ﺗﺸﺷﺠﺟﻴﻊ ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺍاﻟﺘﺤﺣﺪﺩدﺚﺙث ﻤﻣﻨﻧﺎﻗﺸﺷﺔ ﺗﺠﺟﺮﺒﺑﺘﻬﮭﮫﻢﻡم ﻤﻣﻊ ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻮﻭوﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‪.‬‬
‫ﻳﺠﺟﺐﺏب ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺗﻛﻮﻭوﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ‪ :‬ﻮﻭوﺪﺩدﻳﺔ‪ ،٬‬ﺒﺑﺴﺳﻴﻄﻃﻂﻁطﺔ‪ ،٬‬ﻮﻭوﺃأﻦﻥن ﻻﺗﻛﻮﻭوﻦﻥن ﻋﻠﻰ ﺸﺷﻛﻝل ﺇإﺨﺧﺘﺒﺑﺎﺭر‬
‫ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻘﺪﺩدﻤﻣﺔ "ﻤﻣﺪﺩدﺭرﺴﺳﻴﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﺘﺮﺒﺑﻴﺔ ﺍاﻟﺒﺑﺪﺩدﻨﻧﻴﺔ ﺴﺳﻮﻭوﻒﻑف ﻳﺒﺑﺪﺩدﺆﺅؤﻦﻥن ﺤﺣﺎﻟﻴﺎ ﻳﻘﻮﻭوﻤﻣﻮﻭوﻦﻥن ﺒﺑﺘﺠﺟﺮﺒﺑﺔ ﻤﻣﻨﻧﻬﮭﮫﺞ ﺠﺟﺪﺩدﻳﺪﺩد ﻟﻠﺘﺮﺒﺑﻴﺔ ﺍاﻟﺒﺑﺪﺩدﻨﻧﻴﺔ‪ .‬ﻫﮬﮪھﺬﺫذﺍا ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻨﻧﻬﮭﮫﺞ ﺍاﻟﺠﺟﺪﺩدﻳﺪﺩد‬
‫ﺴﺳﻮﻭوﻒﻑف ﻳﻀﺿﻢﻡم ﻟﻌﺒﺑﺔ ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺍاﻷﺭرﻀﺿﻲ ﻤﻣﻊ ﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺗﻬﮭﮫﺎ ﻛﺮﻳﺎﻀﺿﺔ ﺃأﺴﺳﺎﺴﺳﻴﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻨﻧﻬﮭﮫﺞ ﺍاﻟﺠﺟﺪﺩدﻳﺪﺩد‪ .‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﻳﻤﻣﻛﻨﻧﻚﻙك ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺗﻌﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻴﻨﻧﻲ ﺭرﺃأﻳﻚﻙك‬
‫ﻮﻭوﺗﻘﻴﻴﻤﻣﻚﻙك ﻟﻬﮭﮫﺬﺫذﺍا ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻨﻧﻬﮭﮫﺞ ﺍاﻟﺠﺟﺪﺩدﻳﺪﺩد‪ .‬ﻟﻘﺪﺩد ﺗﻢﻡم ﺍاﺨﺧﺘﺎﺭرﻛﻢﻡم ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﻗﺒﺑﻝل ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﺪﺩدﺭرﺴﺳﻴﻦﻥن ﻟﻬﮭﮫﺬﺫذﻩه ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ ﻟﺤﺣﻀﺿﻮﻭوﺭرﻛﻢﻡم ﻮﻭوﺍاﻟﺘﺰﺍاﻤﻣﻚﻙك ﺍاﻟﺮﺍاﺌﺋﻊ‪ ،٬‬ﻮﻭوﻷﻨﻧﻨﻧﺎ ﻻ‬
‫ﻨﻧﺴﺳﺘﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻴﻊ ﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ ﺠﺟﻤﻣﻴﻊ ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ‪ .‬ﺭرﺃأﻳﻛﻢﻡم ﻤﻣﻬﮭﮫﻢﻡم ﻟﻤﻣﻌﺮﻓﺔ ﺇإﺬﺫذﺍا ﻛﺎﻨﻧﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺍاﻷﺭرﻀﺿﻲ ﻮﻭوﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺗﻬﮭﮫﺎ ﻤﻣﻨﻧﺎﺴﺳﺒﺑﺔ ﻮﻭوﻓﻌﺎﻟﺔ ﻟﻛﻢﻡم‪ .‬ﻟﻴﺲﺱس ﻫﮬﮪھﻨﻧﺎﻚﻙك‬
‫ﺇإﺠﺟﺎﺒﺑﺔ ﺼﺻﺤﺣﻴﺤﺣﻴﺔ ﺃأﻮﻭو ﺇإﺠﺟﺎﺒﺑﺔ ﺨﺧﺎﻄﻃﻂﻁطﺌﺋﺔ‪ ،٬‬ﻓﻘﻄﻃﻂﻁط ﻨﻧﺤﺣﺘﺎﺝج ﻟﺮﺃأﻳﻚﻙك ﻮﻭوﺍاﺤﺣﺴﺳﺎﺴﺳﻚﻙك ﺨﺧﻼﻝل ﺤﺣﺼﺻﺺﺹص ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‪ .‬ﻟﺬﺫذﻟﻚﻙك ﻋﺒﺑﺮ ﻋﻦﻥن ﺭرﺃأﻳﻚﻙك ﻮﻭوﺸﺷﺎﺭرﻚﻙك‬
‫ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﺤﺣﺎﺪﺩدﺛﺔ ﺍاﻟﺠﺟﻤﻣﺎﻋﻴﺔ ﺒﺑﻛﻝل ﺤﺣﺮﻳﺔ ﻤﻣﻊ ﺍاﺤﺣﺘﺮﺍاﻢﻡم ﺃأﺼﺻﺪﺩدﻗﺎﺌﺋﻚﻙك ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ‪ .‬ﺴﺳﻮﻭوﻒﻑف ﺃأﻋﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻲ ﺍاﻟﺠﺟﻤﻣﻴﻊ ﺍاﻟﻔﺮﺼﺻﺔ ﻟﻠﻤﻣﺸﺷﺎﺭرﻛﺔ ﻮﻭوﺇإﺒﺑﺪﺩدﺍاﺀء‬
‫ﺍاﻟﺮﺃأﻱي‪ .‬ﻟﺬﺫذﻟﻚﻙك ﻻﺗﻮﻭوﺠﺟﺪﺩد ﺤﺣﺎﺠﺟﺔ ﻟﻤﻣﻘﺎﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻌﺔ ﺃأﺼﺻﺪﺩدﻗﺎﺌﺋﻚﻙك‪ .‬ﻻ ﺗﻮﻭوﺠﺟﺪﺩد ﻤﻣﺸﺷﻛﻠﺔ ﺇإﺬﺫذﺍا ﻛﺎﻨﻧﺖﺕت ﺃأﺠﺟﺎﺒﺑﺘﻚﻙك ﻤﻣﺘﺸﺷﺎﺒﺑﺔ ﺃأﻮﻭو ﻤﻣﺨﺧﺎﻟﻔﺔ ﻟﺼﺻﺪﺩدﻳﻘﻚﻙك‪ .‬ﻮﻭوﺗﺬﺫذﻛﺮ‬
‫ﺪﺩدﺍاﺌﺋﻤﻣﺎ ﻫﮬﮪھﺬﺫذﻩه ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ ﻟﻴﺴﺳﺖﺕت ﺃأﺨﺧﺘﺒﺑﺎﺭر"‬
‫ﺍاﻷﺴﺳﺌﺋﻠﺔ‪:‬‬
‫‪.1‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﺗﺴﺳﺘﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻴﻊ ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺗﺨﺧﺒﺑﺮﻨﻧﻲ ﻤﻣﺎﺬﺫذﺍا ﻛﺎﻦﻥن ﺸﺷﻌﻮﻭوﺭرﻚﻙك ﻮﻭوﺍاﻨﻧﺖﺕت ﺗﺘﻌﻠﻢﻡم ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﺤﺣﺼﺻﺔ؟ ﻤﻣﻊ ﺬﺫذﻛﺮ ﺃأﻤﻣﺜﻠﺔ؟‬
‫‪.2‬ﻤﻣﺎﻫﮬﮪھﻮﻭو ﺃأﻛﺜﺮ ﺸﺷﻲﺀء ﻋﺠﺟﺒﺑﻚﻙك ﺒﺑﺎﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻓﻲ ﺭرﺃأﻳﻚﻙك؟‬
‫‪.3‬ﻤﻣﺎ ﻫﮬﮪھﻮﻭو ﺃأﻛﺜﺮ ﺸﺷﻲﺀء ﻟﻢﻡم ﻳﻌﺠﺟﺒﺑﻚﻙك ﺒﺑﺎﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻓﻲ ﺭرﺃأﻳﻚﻙك؟‬
‫‪.4‬ﻤﻣﺎ ﻫﮬﮪھﻲ ﺍاﻷﺸﺷﻴﺎﺀء ﺍاﻟﻠﺘﻲ ﻳﻤﻣﻛﻦﻥن ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺗﺨﺧﺒﺑﺮ ﺃأﺼﺻﺪﺩدﻗﺎﺌﺋﻚﻙك ﻮﻭوﻋﺎﺌﺋﻠﺘﻚﻙك ﻋﻦﻥن ﻟﻌﺒﺑﺔ ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس؟‬
‫‪.5‬ﻤﻣﺎﺬﺫذﺍا ﻳﻤﻣﻛﻦﻥن ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺗﺠﺟﺎﻮﻭوﺐﺏب ﺇإﺬﺫذﺍا ﺴﺳﺄﻟﻚﻙك ﺃأﺤﺣﺪﺩدﺍا ﻋﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس؟‬
‫‪ .6‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﺗﻌﺘﻘﺪﺩد ﺒﺑﺎﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻟﻌﺒﺑﺔ ﻤﻣﺸﺷﻮﻭوﻗﺔ؟ ﻟﻤﻣﺎﺬﺫذﺍا؟‬
‫‪ .7‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﺗﻌﺘﻘﺪﺩد ﺒﺑﺄﻦﻥن ﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺗﺴﺳﺎﻋﺪﺩدﻚﻙك ﻋﻠﻰ ﻟﻌﺐﺏب ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺒﺑﺼﺻﻮﻭوﺭرﺓة ﺃأﻓﻀﺿﻝل؟ ﻟﻤﻣﺎﺬﺫذﺍا؟‬
‫‪.8‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﺴﺳﻮﻭوﻒﻑف ﺗﺸﺷﺎﺭرﻚﻙك ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﺴﺳﺘﻘﺒﺑﻝل ﺃأﻮﻭو ﺇإﻨﻧﻚﻙك ﺍاﻛﺘﻔﻴﺖﺕت ﺒﺑﻬﮭﮫﺬﺫذﺍا ﻻﻗﺪﺩدﺭر؟ ﻟﻤﻣﺎﺬﺫذﺍا؟‬
‫‪ .9‬ﺇإﺬﺫذﺍا ﺃأﻋﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻲ ﻟﻚﻙك ﺍاﻟﻘﺮﺍاﺭر ﻓﻲ ﺗﻐﻴﻴﺮ ﺒﺑﻌﺾﺽض ﺃأﻮﻭو ﻛﻝل ﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‪ ،٬‬ﻤﻣﺎﺬﺫذﺍا ﺴﺳﻮﻭوﻒﻑف ﺗﻐﻴﺮ؟ ﺍاﺸﺷﺮﺡح؟‬
‫ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﺗﻮﻭوﺪﺩد ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺗﺪﺩدﺭرﺲﺱس ﻟﻌﺒﺑﺔ ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻓﻲ ﺤﺣﺼﺻﺺﺹص ﺍاﻟﺘﺮﺒﺑﻴﺔ ﺍاﻟﺒﺑﺪﺩدﻨﻧﻴﺔ؟ ﻟﻤﻣﺎﺬﺫذ؟‬
‫‪.10‬‬
‫‪ ‬‬
‫‪156‬‬
‫ﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ ﻤﻣﺪﺩدﺭرﺴﺳﺎﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﺮﺒﺑﻴﺔ ﺍاﻟﺒﺑﺪﺩدﻨﻧﻴﺔ‬
‫ﺍاﻟﻬﮭﮫﺪﺩدﻒﻑف ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻘﺎﺒﺑﻠﺔ ﻫﮬﮪھﻮﻭو ﺍاﻋﻄﻃﻂﻁطﺎﺀء ﻓﻛﺮﺓة ﻋﻦﻥن ﻤﻣﺸﺷﺎﺭرﻚﻙك ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﺒﺑﺤﺣﺚﺙث ﺍاﻟﻌﻠﻤﻣﻲ‬
‫ﺍاﻷﺴﺳﺌﺋﻠﺔ‪:‬‬
‫‪.1‬ﻛﻴﻒﻑف ﺭرﺃأﻳﺖﺕت ﺗﻔﺎﻋﻝل ﻮﻭوﻤﻣﺸﺷﺎﺭرﻛﺔ ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﺤﺣﺼﺻﺺﺹص ﺍاﻟﻠﺘﻲ ﺗﻢﻡم ﺗﻄﻃﻂﻁطﺒﺑﻴﻖﻕق ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻓﻴﻬﮭﮫﺎ؟ ﺇإﺸﺷﺮﺤﺣﻲ ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﻓﻀﺿﻠﻚﻙك؟‬
‫‪.2‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﻫﮬﮪھﻨﻧﺎﻚﻙك ﻓﺮﻖﻕق ﻓﻲ ﺗﻔﺎﻋﻝل ﻮﻭوﺍاﺴﺳﺘﻤﻣﺘﺎﻉع ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺤﺣﺼﺻﺺﺹص ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻤﻣﻘﺎﺭرﻨﻧﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺤﺣﺼﺻﺺﺹص ﺍاﻟﺘﺮﺒﺑﻴﺔ ﺍاﻟﺒﺑﺪﺩدﻨﻧﻴﺔ ﺍاﻟﺘﻘﻠﻴﺪﺩدﻳﺔ؟‬
‫ﻛﻴﻒﻑف؟‬
‫‪.3‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﻳﻤﻣﻛﻦﻥن ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺗﺤﺣﺪﺩدﺪﺩدﻱي ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ ﺗﻔﺎﻋﻠﻮﻭوﺍا ﻮﻭوﺸﺷﺎﺭرﻛﻮﻭوﺍا ﺒﺑﻄﻃﻂﻁطﺮﻳﻘﺔ ﺇإﻳﺠﺟﺎﺒﺑﻴﺔ ﺃأﻢﻡم ﺴﺳﻠﺒﺑﻴﺔ؟ ﻛﻴﻒﻑف ﻤﻣﻊ ﺬﺫذﻛﺮ ﺃأﻤﻣﺜﻠﺔ ﺇإﺬﺫذﺍا ﺃأﻤﻣﻛﻦﻥن؟‬
‫‪ .4‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﺗﻌﺘﻘﺪﺩدﻳﻦﻥن ﺒﺑﺄﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺯزﺍاﺪﺩدﺓة ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﺍاﺴﺳﺘﻤﻣﺘﺎﻉع ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ؟ ﻛﻴﻒﻑف؟‬
‫‪ .5‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﺗﻌﺘﻘﺪﺩدﻳﻦﻥن ﺒﺑﺄﻦﻥن ﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺍاﻟﺤﺣﺪﺩدﻳﺜﺔ ﺯزﺍاﺪﺩدﺓة ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﺍاﺴﺳﺘﻤﻣﺘﺎﻉع ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ؟ ﻛﻴﻒﻑف؟‬
‫‪ .6‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﺗﻌﺘﻘﺪﺩدﻳﻦﻥن ﺒﺑﺄﻦﻥن ﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺍاﻟﺘﻘﻠﻴﺪﺩدﻳﺔ ﺯزﺍاﺪﺩدﺓة ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﺍاﺴﺳﺘﻤﻣﺘﺎﻉع ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ؟ ﻛﻴﻒﻑف؟‬
‫‪ .7‬ﻛﻴﻒﻑف ﻳﻤﻣﻛﻨﻧﻚﻙك ﺸﺷﺮﺡح ﺍاﻟﻔﺮﻖﻕق ﺒﺑﻴﻦﻥن ﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺍاﻟﺘﻘﻠﻴﺪﺩدﻳﺔ ﻮﻭوﺍاﻟﺤﺣﺪﺩدﻳﺜﺔ ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﺤﺣﻴﺚﺙث ﺗﺄﺛﻴﺮﻫﮬﮪھﺎ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺍاﺴﺳﺘﻤﻣﺘﺎﻉع ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ‬
‫ﻮﻭوﺍاﺤﺣﺴﺳﺎﺴﺳﻬﮭﮫﻢﻡم؟‬
‫‪ .8‬ﻤﻣﺎ ﻫﮬﮪھﻲ ﺃأﻛﺜﺮ ﺭرﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺪﺩد ﺍاﻷﻓﻌﺎﻝل ﻮﻭوﺃأﻗﻮﻭوﺍاﻝل ﺒﺑﺎﺗﺠﺟﺎﻩه ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺍاﻟﻠﺘﻲ ﺴﺳﻤﻣﻌﺘﻬﮭﮫﺎ ﻤﻣﻦﻥن ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ ﺨﺧﻼﻝل ﻤﻣﺸﺷﺎﺭرﻛﺘﻬﮭﮫﻢﻡم ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﺤﺣﺼﺻﺺﺹص‬
‫ﺍاﻟﺪﺩدﺭرﺍاﺴﺳﻴﺔ ﺍاﻟﺨﺧﺎﺼﺻﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﺒﺑﺤﺣﺚﺙث؟ ﻤﻣﻊ ﺍاﻟﺸﺷﺮﺡح ﺇإﺬﺫذﺍا ﺃأﻤﻣﻛﻦﻥن؟‬
‫‪ .9‬ﺒﺑﻤﻣﺎ ﺃأﻨﻧﻚﻙك ﺴﺳﺎﻫﮬﮪھﻤﻣﺘﻲ ﻓﻲ ﺗﻨﻧﻈﻇﻆﻅظﻴﻢﻡم ﺠﺟﻤﻣﻴﻊ ﺍاﻟﺤﺣﺼﺻﺺﺹص‪ .‬ﻫﮬﮪھﻝل ﻳﻤﻣﻛﻨﻧﻚﻙك ﺃأﻦﻥن ﺗﺤﺣﺪﺩدﻳﺪﺩد ﺃأﻱي ﺍاﻷﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺖﺕت ﺴﺳﺎﻫﮬﮪھﻤﻣﺖﺕت ﺃأﻛﺜﺮ ﻓﻲ ﺍاﺴﺳﺘﻤﻣﺘﺎﻉع ﺍاﻟﻄﻃﻂﻁطﻠﺒﺑﺔ‪،٬‬‬
‫ﺇإﺤﺣﺴﺳﺎﺴﺳﻬﮭﮫﻢﻡم ﺒﺑﻘﺪﺩدﺭرﺗﻬﮭﮫﻢﻡم ﻋﻠﻰ ﻟﻌﺐﺏب ﺍاﻟﺒﺑﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس‪ ،٬‬ﺭرﻏﺒﺑﺘﻬﮭﮫﻢﻡم ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﺸﺷﺎﺭرﻛﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس؟ ﻛﻴﻒﻑف ﻤﻣﻊ ﺬﺫذﻛﺮ ﺃأﻤﻣﺜﻠﺔ؟‬
‫ﻟﻮﻭو ﺗﻤﻣﺖﺕت ﺇإﻀﺿﺎﻓﺔ ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﻓﻲ ﺍاﻟﻤﻣﻨﻧﻬﮭﮫﺞ ﺃأﻱي ﺃأﺪﺩدﻮﻭوﺍاﺖﺕت ﺍاﻟﺘﻨﻧﺲﺱس ﺴﺳﻮﻭوﻒﻑف ﺗﺨﺧﺘﺎﺭرﻳﻦﻥن؟ ﻟﻤﻣﺎﺬﺫذﺍا؟‬
‫‪.10‬‬
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APPENDIX H
RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN PARTICIPANTS
FOR UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD
APPROVAL LETTER
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